Longitudinal Flight Multi-Control Blending Verification Using COTS Based Simulation

Abstract

This paper propose the design of a longitudinal flight multi-control blending autopilot system which aims to control both of the airspeed, the altitude and the pitch motion of an aircraft. The proposed controller has to perform different tasks during a flight mission such as holding altitude and following a desired flight path. The simulation is performed using the BADA database and Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) platform named ‘Xplane’ dedicated to flight simulation. This later gives the possibility to integrate different components (aircraft, UAV s, Ground vehicles, missiles…). These components are integrated in simulation based on both their dynamics and their virtual models. In this paper, the transition between the different flight modes in ensured for optimum handling qualities using the energy angle. We defined the command variables blend between attitude and flight path control. The obtained results for altitude and airspeed hold modes and pitch control demonstrate the satisfactory performances even in presence of external distubance.