AIRCRAFT INVERSE SIMULATION ALONG PRESCRIBED THREE DIMENSIONAL TRAJECTORIES

Abstract

A general formulation of the inverse problem of aircraft control is presented. The trajectory of the prescribed maneuver in three dimensions is modeled as a set ofdynamic constraints on the general non linear equations of motion. The equations are directly integrated to obtain the control vector necessary to realize the prescribed maneuver. The problem is also considered for the many cases of a trajectory described by a succession of defined points. A smoothing interpolation technique is used to approximate the trajectory in order to insure the continuity of all variable derivatives with respect to time. These continuous derivatives are obtained numerically and substituted in the analytic expressions of the generalized velocities and accelerations. The method! is applied to some interesting three dimensional aircraft flight maneuvers.