IMPLEMENTATION OF A FULL-ENVELOPE CONTROLLER FOR A HIGH-PERFORMANCE AIRCRAFT

The design, implementation, and evaluation of a full-envelope control system for the AIAA controls design challenge aircraft is presented. T he control problem is divided into separate longitudinal and lateral/d irectional designs. The longitudinal controller is a Mach number and n ight path angle command system, and bank angle is commanded through th e lateral/directional autopilot. A cross-axis filter minimizes transie nt errors during coupled maneuvers. Proportional plus integral plus de rivative structure is built into a linear quadratic synthesis problem to generate state feedback gains. An implementable output feedback sol ution is found through a linear transformation of the state feedback g ain matrix. The control system is gain scheduled with dynamic pressure through polynomial curve fits of linear point design gains. Required maneuvers are demonstrated within design specifications except in case s where the physical limitations of the aircraft restrict achievable p erformance.