Abstract
Control laws for the automatic landing of a VTOL aircraft are described. Only the low-speed and touchdown regions of the flight envelope are considered; i.e., the aircraft forward velocity does not exceed 50 fps. The vehicle used for the investigation is the Short SCI jet-lift VTOL aircraft, and a suitable flight path for this is outlined. A mathematical model of the aircraft is constructed in five degrees of freedom; yawing motion is neglected, as heading is assumed to be held constant for the landing maneuver. Both the model and the flight path are simulated on an analog computer. The landing control laws are designed using conventional principles and operate in the tracking mode. Reference trajectories are set up and control laws described for glide-path holding, track holding, and the speed-range characteristic. As an aid to control law design, a root locus study is carried out in addition to the analog simulation. Results are presented to indicate the performance of the aircraft and its control laws in still air and under the influence of steady and gusting winds. The system described is mechanized readily and provides reasonable performance.
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