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.

The Book The behaviour of helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft is so complex that understanding the physical mechanisms at work in trim, stability and response, and thus the prediction of Flying Qualities, requires a framework of analytical and numerical modelling and simulation. Good Flying Qualities are vital for ensuring that mission performance is achievable with safety and, in the first and second editions of Helicopter Flight Dynamics, a comprehensive treatment of design criteria was presented, relating to both normal and degraded Flying Qualities. Fully embracing the consequences of Degraded Flying Qualities during the design phase will contribute positively to safety. In this third edition, two new Chapters are included. Chapter 9 takes the reader on a journey from the origins of the story of Flying Qualities, tracing key contributions to the developing maturity and to the current position. Chapter 10 provides a comprehensive treatment of the Flight Dynamics of tiltrotor aircraft; informed by research activities and the limited data on operational aircraft. Many of the unique behavioural characteristics of tiltrotors are revealed for the first time in this book. The accurate prediction and assessment of Flying Qualities draws on the modelling and simulation discipline on the one hand and testing practice on the other. Checking predictions in flight requires clearly defined mission tasks, derived from realistic performance requirements. High fidelity simulations also form the basis for the design of stability and control augmentation systems, essential for conferring Level 1 Flying Qualities. The integrated description of flight dynamic modelling, simulation and flying qualities of rotorcraft forms the subject of this book, which will be of interest to engineers practising and honing their skills in research laboratories, academia and manufacturing industries, test pilots and flight test engineers, and as a reference for graduate and postgraduate students in aerospace engineering.

The first flight test phase of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Autonomous Formation Flight project has successfully demonstrated precision autonomous station-keeping of an F/A-18 research airplane with a second F/A-18 airplane. Blended inertial navigation system (INS) and global positioning system (GPS) measurements have been communicated across an air-to-air telemetry link and used to compute relative-position estimates. A precision research formation autopilot onboard the trailing airplane controls lateral and vertical spacing while the leading airplane operates under production autopilot control. Four research autopilot gain sets have been designed and flight-tested, and each exceeds the project design requirement of steady-state tracking accuracy within 1 standard deviation of 10 ft.

The book collects selected papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Aerospace System Science and Engineering (ICASSE 2021), organized by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, hosted by Moscow Aviation Institute, Russia. It provides a forum for experts in aeronautics and astronautics to share new ideas and findings. ICASSE conference has been organized annually since 2017 and host in Shanghai, Moscow, and Toronto in turn, where the three regional editors of journal Aerospace Systems are located. This book presents high-quality contributions in the subject area of Aerospace System Science and Engineering, including topics such as: Trans-space vehicle systems design and integration, Air vehicle systems, Space vehicle systems, Near-space vehicle systems, Opto-electronic system, Aerospace robotics and unmanned system, Aerospace robotics and unmanned system, Communication, navigation and surveillance, Dynamics and control, Intelligent sensing and Information fusion, Aerodynamics and aircraft design, Aerospace propulsion, Avionics system, Air traffic management, Earth observation, Deep space exploration, Bionic micro-aircraft/spacecraft.

In its first centennial, aerospace has matured from a pioneering activity to an indispensable enabler of our daily life activities. In the next twenty to thirty years, aerospace will face a tremendous challenge - the development of flying objects that do not depend on fossil fuels. The twenty-three chapters in this book capture some of the new technologies and methods that are currently being developed to enable sustainable air transport and space flight. It clearly illustrates the multi-disciplinary character of aerospace engineering, and the fact that the challenges of air transportation and space missions continue to call for the most innovative solutions and daring concepts.

Control of Linear Parameter Varying Systems compiles state-of-the-art contributions on novel analytical and computational methods for addressing system identification, model reduction, performance analysis and feedback control design and addresses address theoretical developments, novel computational approaches and illustrative applications to various fields. Part I discusses modeling and system identification of linear parameter varying systems, Part II covers the importance of analysis and control design when working with linear parameter varying systems (LPVS) , Finally, Part III presents an applications based approach to linear parameter varying systems, including modeling of a turbocharged diesel engines, Multivariable control of wind turbines, modeling and control of aircraft engines, control of an autonomous underwater vehicles and analysis and synthesis of re-entry vehicles.

Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems explores the research and development of fully-functional miniature UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) rotorcraft, and provides a complete treatment of the design of autonomous miniature rotorcraft UAVs. The unmanned system is an integration of advanced technologies developed in communications, computing, and control areas, and is an excellent testing ground for trialing and implementing modern control techniques. Included are detailed expositions of systematic hardware construction, software systems integration, aerodynamic modeling; and automatic flight control system design. Emphasis is placed on the cooperative control and flight formation of multiple UAVs, vision-based ground target tracking, and landing on moving platforms. Other issues such as the development of GPS-less indoor micro aerial vehicles and vision-based navigation are also discussed in depth: utilizing the vision-based system for accomplishing ground target tracking, attacking and landing, cooperative control and flight formation of multiple unmanned rotorcraft; and future research directions on the related areas.