Aircraft multi-velocity difference car-following model based on flight networking operation

In order to improve the stability of air traffic flow, this study investigated an aircraft multi-velocity difference car-following model considering offsets based on the characteristics of flight networking operations. Firstly, to quantitatively describe the influence of offsets between aircraft on the car-following behavior, the concept of offset hindrance was introduced, and the relationship between offset and the velocity of the leading aircraft was established, extending the car-following model to a three-dimensional mode. Secondly, by considering the multi-aircraft information interaction mode in the flight networking environment, a multi-velocity difference aircraft car-following model was constructed, and stability analysis methods were applied to derive the stability discrimination conditions and calculate the steady-state traffic capacity of the proposed model. Finally, based on the parameter calibration of the model, numerical simulation experiments were designed by using the multi-velocity difference car-following model considering three leading aircraft. The results show that the hindrance effect decreases as the offset increases, and for the same offset value, heavy aircraft have the highest hindrance effect while light aircraft have the lowest hindrance effect. The proposed model has a better stable region compared to traditional models, and the stability of the proposed model improves with an increase in the number of leading aircraft and the weight coefficient. Under the same parameter values, the fuel consumption coefficient of the proposed model is lower than that of the traditional car-following model, and when the sensitivity coefficient is set to 1 s⁻¹, the fuel consumption coefficient decreases by 27.12%. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the aircraft multi-velocity difference model contributes to improving the stability of air traffic flow and reducing fuel consumption.