Longitudinal Control Law for Modern Long Range Civil Aircraft

The challenge in the design of commercial aircraft is the multi-disciplinary optimization over the largest flight domain. This can lead to very non-linear aerodynamic and handling qualities which are influenced by a great number of parameters, such as Mach number, surfaces deflections and wing flexibility. The presented longitudinal control laws concept copes with these difficulties by combining an adaptive controller based on a reference model and a set of dynamic feed-forwards to shape the aircraft behaviour in every condition and for every piloting task. On top of providing a robust control of the aircraft, ensuring safety and easy to fly, the concept eases the development of flight control laws and reduces flight test effort.