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Optimising the loading of aircraft
4/6/12

A generic model

In the first instance, the model was tested on the simulated loading of the cargo of a Boeing 747, which today remains the most used aircraft in the transportation of air cargo. However, Professor Schyns insists on the fact that the model is relatively general “We are not consultants nor have we been commissioned by a particular operator with the objective of finding a solution to all the problems they may have. The purpose was clearly to suggest a generic model which can be applied to all kinds of aircraft and to all types of ULD as long as they are of the standard sizes and norms”. This promises a bright future for the present research in the area of air transport.

Although the team is in contact with several companies, the model is not yet used by the different operators but would be a wonderful tool for them. In the meantime, the two researchers continue to interest themselves in the loading of aircraft, and extend their study to other hypothetical cases like for example, the problem of parcels that are too big for the pre-defined spaces in the aircraft, or that of segregation. Some atypical ULDs have to be separated or placed in specific places on the plane according to their type. Sabine Limbourg observes with a mischievous tone, Avion“For example, it could be sensitive to place a living animal near food. We are also beginning to deal with the question of dangerous or radioactive products, or even products that emit  electromagnetic waves which must be placed as far away as possible from the compasses, for example, and thus from the front of the aircraft. We also have a PhD student interested in the question of filling the containers which are then loaded onto trucks after the flight. There is also a series of hypothetical cases which can create constraints that we have not dealt with in the original model and which lead us to persist in our research.”

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