In aviation, a balanced field takeoff is a condition where the takeoff distance required (TODR) with one engine inoperative and the accelerate-stop distance are equal for the aircraft weight, engine thrust, aircraft configuration and runway condition.
[citation needed] Factors affecting the balanced field length include: Calculation of the balanced field length traditionally involves relying on an expansion program model, where the various forces are evaluated as a function of speed, and step-wise integrated, using an estimate for V1.
The process is iterated with different values for the engine failure speed until the accelerate-stop and accelerate-go distances are equal.
This process suffers from the inherently slow and repetitive approach, which is also subject to round-off errors if the speed increment between the steps is not carefully selected, which could cause some issues in first principle aircraft performance models provided to airlines for day-to-day operations.
Alternate approaches using a more mathematically complex but inherently more accurate and faster algebraic integration method have however been developed.