Design and Evaluation of a Damage-Tolerant Flight Control System

Abstract

The performance and stability requirements for a robust flight control system design are presented in the form of a ‘design challenge.’ The challenge includes description of specific vehicle failures that are to be accommodated by the flight control system. The vehicle chosen for the design is the innovative control effector vehicle, and both longitudinal and lateral/directional degrees of freedom are included. Two flight conditions are considered: Mach number 0.3 and altitude 15 000 ft; Mach number 0.9 and altitude 35 000 ft. No scheduling of the flight control law is permitted in the design. After the performance and stability requirements are described, a solution to the design challenge is presented in the form of a sliding-mode control system offered as an alternative to reconfigurable designs. The performance of this system is then evaluated through analysis and computer simulation, including significant failures and damage.