Flight control laws for full envelope banked turns
A flight control system and method for controlling full envelope banked turns of an aircraft, the flight control system including one or more of a control law architectures having one or more control laws adapted for controlling the flight of an aircraft for full envelope banked turns.
1. An aircraft, comprising:
a sensor carried by the aircraft, the sensor being adapted to sense a directional movement of the aircraft;
an actuator carried by the aircraft, the actuator being utilized to control the directional movement of the aircraft; and
a control system in data communication with the aircraft sensor and operably associated with the actuator, the control system having:
a lateral control architecture the lateral control architecture, comprising:
a lateral crab angle control law;
a lateral heading control law; and
a lateral sideward groundspeed control law;
wherein the lateral crab angle control law, the lateral heading control law, and the lateral sideward groundspeed control law are operably associated with the sensors, the initialization logic, and a directional command;
a longitudinal control architecture; and
an initialization command logic in data communication with the lateral control architecture and in data communication with the longitudinal control architecture;
wherein the initialization command logic selectively activates the lateral control architecture for controlling the lateral motion of the aircraft and selectively activates the longitudinal control architecture for controlling the longitudinal motion of the aircraft; and
wherein the control system utilizes the lateral control architecture and the longitudinal control architecture to control speed variations of the aircraft while the aircraft maintains a full banked envelope turn with respect to a ground surface.
2. The aircraft of claim 1 , further comprising:
a switch operably associated with the crab angle control law, the heading control law, and the sideward groundspeed control law.
3. The aircraft of claim 1 , further comprising:
a lateral roll attitude control law operably associated with the crab angle control law, the heading control law, and the sideward groundspeed control law.
4. The aircraft of claim 3 , further comprising:
a lateral roll rate operably associated with the lateral roll attitude control law;
wherein the lateral roll rate commands the actuator.
5. The aircraft of claim 4 , wherein the lateral roll rate control law is an inner loop of the lateral control law architecture.
6. The aircraft of claim 1 , the longitudinal architecture, comprising:
a longitudinal forward speed control law operably associated with both the sensor, the initialization logic, and the longitudinal commands.
7. The aircraft of claim 6 , further comprising:
a longitudinal pitch angle control law operably associated with the sensors, the initialization logic, the longitudinal commands, and the longitudinal forward speed control law.
8. The aircraft of claim 6 , further comprising:
a longitudinal pitch rate control law operably associated with the sensors, the initialization logic, the longitudinal commands, and the longitudinal pitch rate control law.
9. The aircraft of claim 8 , wherein the longitudinal pitch rate control law is an inner loop of the lateral control law architecture.
10. The aircraft of claim 1 , further comprising:
a directional control law architecture in data communication with the initialization command logic;
wherein the initialization command logic selectively activates the directional control law architecture for controlling the directional motion of the aircraft.
11. The aircraft of claim 10 , the directional control law architecture, comprising:
a directional heading control law; and
a directional turn coordination control law;
wherein the heading control law and the turn coordination control law are operably associated with the sensors, the initialization logic, and a directional command.
12. The aircraft of claim 11 , further comprising:
a directional yaw rate control law operably associated with the heading control law and the turn coordination control law.
13. The aircraft of 12 , wherein heading control law and the turn coordination control law are both in data communication with the directional yaw rate control law.
14. The aircraft of claim 12 , wherein the directional yaw rate control law is an inner loop.
15. The aircraft of claim 10 , further comprising:
a switch operably associated with the directional heading control law and the directional turn coordination control law.
16. A control system, comprising:
a lateral control architecture, the lateral control architecture, comprising:
a lateral crab angle control law;
a lateral heading control law; and
a lateral sideward groundspeed control law;
a longitudinal control architecture;
a directional control law architecture; and
an initialization command logic in data communication with the lateral control architecture, the longitudinal control architecture, and the directional control law architecture;
wherein the initialization command logic selectively activates one or more of the lateral control architecture, longitudinal control law architecture, and the directional control law architecture for controlling an aircraft movement during flight; and
wherein the control system utilizes the lateral control architecture, the longitudinal control architecture, and the directional control law architecture to control speed variations of the aircraft while the aircraft maintains a full banked envelope turn with respect to a ground surface.
17. The system of claim 16 , the longitudinal architecture, comprising:
a longitudinal forward speed control law;
a longitudinal pitch angle control law; and
a longitudinal pitch rate control law.
18. The aircraft of claim 16 , the directional control law architecture, comprising:
a directional heading control law; and
a directional turn coordination control law.