Modern Flight Control Design Implementation And Flight Test

Annotation Bridging the gap between academic research and real-world applications, this reference on modern flight control methods for fixed-wing aircraft deals with fundamentals of flight control systems design, then concentrates on applications based on the modern control methods used in the latest aircraft. The book is written for practicing engineers who are new to the aviation industry, postgraduate students in strategic or applied research, and advanced undergraduates. Some knowledge of classical control is assumed. Pratt is a member of IEEE and is UK Member for AIAA's Technical Committee on Guidance, Navigation and Control. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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.

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!

The book aims to build on the fundamentals of flight dynamics and flight control and embellish these principles by assigning their relevance to the development of flight control systems in the aircraft industry. The book comprises 9 chapters and deals with the following subjects: industrial considerations for flight control; aircraft modelling; actuation systems; handling qualities; automatic flight control system design considerations; ground and flight testing of digital flight control systems; aeroservoelasticity; eigenstructure assignment applied to the design of an autopilot function for a civil aircraft; and H & infin; loop-shaping design for the VAAC Harrier

A state-of-the-art computational facility for aircraft flight control design, evaluation, and integration called CONDUIT (Control Designer's Unified Interface) has been developed. This paper describes the CONDUIT tool and case study applications to complex rotary- and fixed- wing fly-by-wire flight control problems. Control system analysis and design optimization methods are presented, including definition of design specifications and system models within CONDUIT, and the multi-objective function optimization (CONSOL-OPTCAD) used to tune the selected design parameters. Design examples are based on flight test programs for which extensive data are available for validation. CONDUIT is used to analyze baseline control laws against pertinent military handling qualities and control system specifications. In both case studies, CONDUIT successfully exploits trade-offs between forward loop and feedback dynamics to significantly improve the expected handling qualities and minimize the required actuator authority. The CONDUIT system provides a new environment for integrated control system analysis and design, and has potential for significantly reducing the time and cost of control system flight test optimization.

This book gives in a concise and easy to understand form the various aspects of Practical Design of Flight Control Systems for Launch Vehicles and Missiles. It covers almost every aspect of Flight Control System Design which a designer would like to know, such as mission considerations, control requirements for various segments of the flight trajectory and different types of control effectors. It further gives generalized equations of motion with a novel method of incorporating structural flexibility and propellant sloshing which does not require rederivation, and very easy and common sense approach to deriving slosh and gimballed engine dynamic equations. Subsequently it gives the control system configurations, power plant sizing, loop design for linearised system and detailed analysis and design of on-off reaction control systems. It also covers various software features which are necessary for actual implementation of the design in flight missions, robustness features to avoid malfunctioning in some circumstances, design validation aspects including end-to-end sign checks and describes some flight experiences which called for design updates. The book is unique for its strong practical flavour and is directly useful to the working engineers in the field and post graduate students in Aerospace Engineering.

Ames Research Center initiated a program in 1975 to provide the critical information required for the design of integrated avionics suitable for general aviation. The program has emphasized the use of data busing, distributed microprocessors, shared electronic displays and data entry devices, and improved functional capability. Design considerations have included cost, reliability, maintainability, and modularity. As a final step, a demonstration advanced avionics system (DAAS) was designed, built, and flight tested in a Cessna 402, twin-engine, general-aviation aircraft. This paper provides a functional description of the DAAS, including a description of the system architecture, and briefly reviews the program and flight-test results.

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.