Abstract
FanWing, a concept for embedding a cross-flow fan into a thick wing for lift enhancement and thrust production, is a new kind of aircraft. Since the action position of the fan wing is after the center of gravity, the rotation of the cross-flow fan produces lift, thrust, and an additional pitch-down moment. Although FanWing has achieved great success at the air shows, scientists mainly concentrate on optimizing the fan wing structure to improve the characteristics of the power system and the dynamic performance of FanWing but rarely consider the control system. There is still a lot of work to do on theoretical research and engineering applications. Thus, the present paper will do some research on the control systems, including two control methods: the traditional elevator, aileron, and rudder control method and the fan wing control method. The influence of the additional pitch-down moment is researched. Based on the study of a 3.5 kg FanWing, the proportional integral differential (PID) controllers are designed. The proposed fan wing controller has been compared with the traditional PID one. The simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed fan wing controller in terms of the nonlinear simulation.
Highlights
Since the transition early in aviation history from underpowered kite-like machines to compact, clean aircraft with adequate propulsion power, the dream of many innovators has been to make use of installed power to produce lift directly
The additional pitch-down moment increases with the increase in the fan wing rotation speed, which leads to a decrease in the pitch angle rate at first
This paper analyzed the simulations of two control methods and proved that the fan wing control is feasible and has a faster response but a little longer settling time
Summary
Since the transition early in aviation history from underpowered kite-like machines to compact, clean aircraft with adequate propulsion power, the dream of many innovators has been to make use of installed power to produce lift directly. Fan wing, fixed in the wing, is an aircraft configuration that uses a simple cross-flow fan mounted in the wing to produce lift and forward thrust simultaneously at a very low flying speed. It is becoming a research hotspot for its performances between a conventional aircraft and a helicopter. In 1962, Dornier proposed to use cross-flow fans in aircraft for both lift augmentation and forward thrust. The central development of FanWing could be divided into two stages: the first stage is primarily the verification of its feasibility and superiority before 200611,12 and the second stage is primarily the optimization of its fan wing structure using the computational fluid dynamics after 2006.13,14 Despite the FanWing company having done much work on the aircraft, little research information is released in the literature. This is because it is easy to build two-dimensional variable inlets and exits to accommodate a wide range of free-stream conditions
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