Research on Command Allocation Method for Flying Wing Aircraft

Abstract

Abstract Flying wing has nice aerodynamic efficiency, good loading and stealth characteristics, it is an ideal aerodynamic configuration for reconnaissance, transportation and bombing type aircraft. However, flying wing aircraft suffers from poor stability and control characteristics, which makes it difficult to design and control. Due to elimination of horizontal and vertical tails, flying wing aircraft has poor longitudinal and directional dynamic characteristics. Unlike most of the conventional aircraft, flying wing aircraft usually have a large number of control effectors, the redundant effectors are designed and required to provide adequate lift, pitch and yawing force or moments. There-fore, flying wing aircraft usually need to adopt reasonable control allocation algorithms to exploit the control capability of redundant effectors. Especially for large-aspect ratio flying wing with very high level of effector redundancy, the pursuit of performances, e.g., gust load alleviation control and maximum lift mode, makes control allocation extremely important and indispensable. This paper summarizes the typical characteristics of command allocation methods, and its applicability in different flight missions, providing a reference for the design of command allocation method for flying wing aircraft.