Scheduling and Assignment of Fighter Pilot Training Missions

A Two-Stage Optimization Approach Towards Increasing Personnel Readiness in the Armed Forces

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

R. Migom Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

Bruno F. Santos Air Transport & Operations - Aerospace Engineering (mentor)
B. Westerweel Royal Netherlands Air Force (graduation committee member)
D.G. Simons Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects - Aerospace Engineering (coach)
A.H. van Zuijlen Aerodynamics - Aerospace Engineering (mentor)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering, Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2021 Rico Migom
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

17-09-2021

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

Military fighter pilots spend most of their working hours performing training missions, simultaneously carried out by multiple pilots with different qualifications. Scheduling these missions is typically done manually, which is a time-consuming task resulting in far from optimal schedules. This study proposes a model that schedules three types of training missions and assigns pilots to these missions for a full-year training program. The proposed methodology consists of a two-stage Mixed Integer Program. Both stages are solved with a Brand and Bound algorithm. Additionally, the second stage implements a Rolling Horizon approach. A case study considering two Royal Netherlands Air Force fighter squadrons is used to test the model. The results show an increase of more than 15% for the average amount of training completed by all pilots, compared to the current scheduling process. The solutions are obtained in a few minutes, demonstrating the suitability to use the model in practice and reduce the time spent on constructing schedules.