Environmental sustainability is one of aviation’s biggest challenges today. To reach the EU’s environmental goals, the aviation sector needs to continue improving fuel efficiency of aircraft and taking measures to reduce noise exposure in the vicinity of airports.

IGS approaches are intended to reduce the noise exposure on the ground by initiating the final approach from a higher altitude. However, steeper approach angles may also reduce the aircraft’s capability to decelerate to final approach speed forcing pilots to configure the aircraft for landing earlier, which can have detrimental effects on noise and fuel consumption.

STEPLESS aims to transform aircraft approach procedures by introducing a novel high-lift system designed for optimised energy management. This innovative approach will enable stepless adjustments to aircraft high-lift configurations during approach, allowing for dynamic adaptation to glide slope angles and flight conditions.

To push forward the operational improvements, STEPLESS has the following overall objectives:

• Understand the principles of stepless aircraft configurations on the aircraft’s capability to capture and fly steeper glidepath angles in an energy-efficient way.
• Provide evidence of the environmental benefits, namely CO₂ emission and noise reduction.
• Assess better adaptation of aircraft capabilities to Air Traffic Management (ATM) operations in Terminal Manoeuvring Area (TMA).
• Assess the impact of stepless high-lift aircraft operations on ATM.
• Assess the impact of operations with stepless high-lift configurations on:
  1. human performance of pilots and required interfaces.
  2. aircraft airworthiness.
  3. departure- and go-around flight phases.
• Create conditions to transfer project results to subsequent stages of the R&I cycle by outlining a new SESAR Solution.

STEPLESS will contribute to improving ATM efficiency by enhancing aircraft compliance with speed interventions by air traffic control (ATC) , ultimately increasing airspace capacity.