New high performance aircraft configurations, such as hypersonic vehicles, flying wing, oblique wing, and vehicles designed for high angle-of-attack operation, have incorporated the use of unique and often redundant control effectors such as canards, thrust vectoring, and split rudders or ailerons. This project will show that the control criteria or pilot-vehicle interface requirements can be integrated or imbedded into the methods of modern, powerful, control system synthesis to yield multivariable flight control system configurations that will enable the pilot to fly with enhanced precision, ease, and confidence. Phase I will demonstrate that the weighting matrices of a linear, quadratic regulator design can be chosen to satisfy flying qualities requirements of an angle-of-attack command and other "response type" systems. This project will seek adequate and accurate control of unique vehicle geometries such as the oblique wing, wingless, and national aerospace plan (NASP) vehicle configurations.
Potential Commercial Applications: Multivariable control theoretic methods, when properly applied, will result in systems that greatly improve manual flight precision.
