AFC – Chapter 11. Flight control of a fixed wing aircraft.

Learning Purposes

1. Apply classical control design techniques for the flight control of a fixed-wing aircraft.
2. Describe the structure of the flight control system based on a multi-loop PID controller: four inner control loops and two outer control loops.
3. Design the inner control loops for the aircraft using state space tools to obtain the mathematical models and the root locus method to design the controller gains: pitch control, speed control, roll control, and side slip angle control.
4. Design the outer control loops for the aircraft using state space tools to obtain the mathematical models and the root locus method to design the controller gains: altitude / vertical speed control and heading/turn rate control.
5. Examine the main considerations in implementing the control for a non-linear system: saturation of the actuators, “anti-windup” system, and feedforward control components to compensate for non-linearities known a priori.
6. Review the implementation of the flight control system simulation using a complete non-linear model of a fixed-wing aircraft.
7. Verify the operation of the flight control system simulation using Matlab® / Octave m language or Simulink®.

Learning Activities

• Watch the video. Lecture 28. Flight control of a fixed-wing aircraft.
• Work on the problem set 11.
• Participate in synchronous meetings of attention to students and solutions to concerns.

Resources for chapter 11

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