Evaluation of a Digital Flight Controller for a Flexible-Fighter Aircraft,

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the effect of a digital flight controller on a flexible-fighter aircraft (FFA) at 0.8 Mach at 30,000. The two maneuvers incorporated in this flight controller are the g-command pull-up and the pitch-pointing maneuvers. Using a control law based on the control system theory developed by Brian Porter, a digital flight controller is first designed for a rigid body aircraft, and is then used on the FFA. This thesis evaluates the effect of the controller for the rigid body design when used on the flexible-fighter. The results showed excellent performance by the FFA. The flexible-fighter model is based on the rigid body dynamics of the AFTI/F-16 combined with the first bending mode of a flexible aircraft. The bending mode of the FFA was selected to correspond to expected characteristics in a typical fighter aircraft. Incorporating a time delay in the controller to represent the expected microprocessor computational time delay did not significantly affect the simulation time response of either the rigid body or the FFA. The Neal-Smith criterion is used to determine the acceptance of the design by a pilot.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1982
Accession Number
ADA138269

Entities

People

  • M. L. Hoffman

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircraft Models
  • Aircrafts
  • Control Systems
  • Dynamics
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Flight Control Systems
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Response
  • Measurement
  • Multiple Input Multiple Output
  • Simulations
  • Standards
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Robotics and Automation.