DESIGN AND PILOTED SIMULATION OF INTEGRATED FLIGHT PROPULSION CONTROLS FOR STOVL AIRCRAFT

An integrated flight/propulsion control system has been designed for o peration of short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) fighter aircraf t over the low-speed, powered-lift flight envelope. The control system employs command modes for attitude, flightpath angle, and nightpath a cceleration during transition, and translational velocity command for hover and vertical landing. In this paper, only the longitudinal modes of control are discussed. Piloted evaluations of the control system h ave been conducted on Ames Research Center's Vertical Motion Simulator . Results indicate that level 1 flying qualities are achieved during t ransition and vertical landing over a wide range of wind, atmospheric turbulence, and visibility conditions.