A Study of Altitude and Flight Path Angle Dynamics for a Singularly Perturbed Fuel Optimization Problem

This short paper will demonstrate that the separation of altitude and flight path angle dynamics using singular perturbation techniques for a transport fuel optimization problem results in an unacceptable oscillation in altitude. A technique for damping this oscillation by adding a penalty term to the cost function for the optimization probles will be discussed. This technique will be compared with a different approach that linearizes the altitude and flight path angle boundary layers.