A Theoretical Method of Determining the Control Gearing and Time Lag Necessary for a Specified Damping of an Aircraft Equipped with a Constant-Time-Lag Autopilot

Abstract

A method is presented for determining the control gearing and time lag necessary for a specified damping of the motions of an aircraft equipped with an autopilot having constant-time-lag characteristics. The method is applied to a typical present-day airplane equipped with an autopilot which applies rudder control proportional to the yawing angular acceleration. The types of motion predicted for this airplane-autopilot system by this method are in very good agreement with the airplane motions calculated by a step-by-step procedure. For some values of control gearing there may exist more than one range of time lag for which the motions of the assumed aircraft- autopilot system will have more than a specified amount of damping.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1951
Accession Number
ADA382149

Entities

People

  • Albert A. Schy
  • Ordway B. Gates Jr.

Organizations

  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aeronautical Laboratories
  • Aircrafts
  • Airplanes
  • Angular Acceleration
  • Automatic
  • Automatic Pilots
  • Boundaries
  • Control Surfaces
  • Control Systems
  • Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Flight Paths
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Response
  • Lepidoptera
  • Resonant Frequency
  • Stability Conditions

Readers

  • Aerodynamics/Aeronautics.
  • Control Systems Engineering.