OpenTOP 2.4.0

Highlights

• Added BADA 3 and BADA 4 performance-model support across complete-flight, climb, cruise, and descent optimizers.
• Added ordered waypoint constraints with route-distance node assignment and optional variable interval durations.
• Added payload-aware initial-mass optimization within aircraft fuel and MTOW limits.
• Improved complete-flight phase allocation and altitude initial guesses for short, dense, and waypoint-constrained routes.

Reliability and compatibility

• Constrained cruise terminal performance and smoothed vertical-rate changes.
• Report solved timestamps and integrate grid costs using each optimized segment duration.
• Validate variable timestep bounds and honor explicit node counts.
• Require OpenAP 2.6 or newer for the BADA backend implementation.
• Updated locked dependencies and CI action versions.

Documentation

• Added waypoint and model-comparison notebooks and generated examples.
• Added high-level OpenTOP workflow and functionality diagrams.

Contributors

Thanks to @jubarauna for the cruise terminal-performance fix, and to everyone who contributed to the waypoint work.

Full changelog: v2.3.0...v2.4.0