This book provides a single comprehensive resource that reviews many of the current aircraft flight control programmes from the perspective of experienced practitioners directly involved in the projects. Each chapter discusses a specific aircraft flight programme covering the control system design considerations, control law architecture, simulation and analysis, flight test optimization and handling qualities evaluations. The programmes described have widely exploited modern interdisciplinary tools and techniques and the discussions include extensive flight test results. Many important `lessons learned' are included from the experience gained when design methods and requirements were tested and optimized in actual flight demonstration.

In this book recent results of the GARTEUR (Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe) Action Group FM (AG11) are presented. The book focuses on analysis techniques for the flight clearance of highly augmented aircrafts, including contributions of 20 European aeronautical organisations such as National Research Centers, Aerospace Industries and Universities. The tasks and requirements of the Industrial Clearance Process for Flight Control Laws are presented as well as classical and particularly new analysis methods. The different methods are evaluated and compared and their potential application to Civil Aircraft is demonstrated.

The #1 guide to understanding the "why and how" of fly-by-wire flight control systems. This book is an approachable and easily understandable must-read for aviation professionals! Why don't new aircraft designs allow the pilots a mechanical control connection? This book explains how fly-by-wire fixes the top 5 problems with mechanical controls for high performance aircraft. Rather than describe a particular aircraft’s design with confusing acronyms, readers will get a "behind the scenes" understanding for the critical concepts that apply to any modern aircraft. Because these design principles are easily described and understood, readers of this book will be armed with knowledge as they approach their flight manual procedures. Including: - Problems with mechanical flight controls - Advantages of fly-by-wire - How and why can fly-by-wire control systems fail? - Why are four computers better than one or two? - Explanations of the control laws used by business jets, fighters, and airliners - What sensors are needed, and how the system maintains control when sensors are lost - Design considerations for risk mitigation in case of component failures Buy this book to read on your next layover!

Get a complete understanding of aircraft control and simulation Aircraft Control and Simulation: Dynamics, Controls Design, and Autonomous Systems, Third Edition is a comprehensive guide to aircraft control and simulation. This updated text covers flight control systems, flight dynamics, aircraft modeling, and flight simulation from both classical design and modern perspectives, as well as two new chapters on the modeling, simulation, and adaptive control of unmanned aerial vehicles. With detailed examples, including relevant MATLAB calculations and FORTRAN codes, this approachable yet detailed reference also provides access to supplementary materials, including chapter problems and an instructor's solution manual. Aircraft control, as a subject area, combines an understanding of aerodynamics with knowledge of the physical systems of an aircraft. The ability to analyze the performance of an aircraft both in the real world and in computer-simulated flight is essential to maintaining proper control and function of the aircraft. Keeping up with the skills necessary to perform this analysis is critical for you to thrive in the aircraft control field. Explore a steadily progressing list of topics, including equations of motion and aerodynamics, classical controls, and more advanced control methods Consider detailed control design examples using computer numerical tools and simulation examples Understand control design methods as they are applied to aircraft nonlinear math models Access updated content about unmanned aircraft (UAVs) Aircraft Control and Simulation: Dynamics, Controls Design, and Autonomous Systems, Third Edition is an essential reference for engineers and designers involved in the development of aircraft and aerospace systems and computer-based flight simulations, as well as upper-level undergraduate and graduate students studying mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Advanced Flight Dynamics aim to integrate the subjects of aircraft performance, trim and stability/control in a seamless manner. Advanced Flight Dynamics highlights three key and unique viewpoints. Firstly, it follows the revised and corrected aerodynamic modeling presented previously in recent textbook on Elementary Flight Dynamics. Secondly, it uses bifurcation and continuation theory, especially the Extended Bifurcation Analysis (EBA) procedure devised by the authors, to blend the subjects of aircraft performance, trim and stability, and flight control into a unified whole. Thirdly, rather than select one control design tool or another, it uses the generalized Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) methodology to illustrate the fundamental principles of flight control. Advanced Flight Dynamics covers all the standard airplane maneuvers, various types of instabilities normally encountered in flight dynamics and illustrates them with real-life airplane data and examples, thus bridging the gap between the teaching of flight dynamics/ control theory in the university and its practice in airplane design bureaus. The expected reader group for this book would ideally be senior undergraduate and graduate students, practicing aerospace/flight simulation engineers/scientists from industry as well as researchers in various organizations. Key Features: Focus on unified nonlinear approach, with nonlinear analysis tools. Provides an up-to-date, corrected, and unified presentation of aircraft trim, stability and control analysis including nonlinear phenomena and closed-loop stability analysis. Contains a computational tool and real-life example carried through the chapters. Includes complementary nonlinear dynamic inversion control approach, with relevant aircraft examples. Fills the gap in the market for a text including non-linear flight dynamics and continuation methods.

Advanced Control of Aircraft, Spacecraft and Rockets introduces the reader to the concepts of modern control theory applied to the design and analysis of general flight control systems in a concise and mathematically rigorous style. It presents a comprehensive treatment of both atmospheric and space flight control systems including aircraft, rockets (missiles and launch vehicles), entry vehicles and spacecraft (both orbital and attitude control). The broad coverage of topics emphasizes the synergies among the various flight control systems and attempts to show their evolution from the same set of physical principles as well as their design and analysis by similar mathematical tools. In addition, this book presents state-of-art control system design methods - including multivariable, optimal, robust, digital and nonlinear strategies - as applied to modern flight control systems. Advanced Control of Aircraft, Spacecraft and Rockets features worked examples and problems at the end of each chapter as well as a number of MATLAB / Simulink examples housed on an accompanying website at http://home.iitk.ac.in/~ashtew that are realistic and representative of the state-of-the-art in flight control.