Enhancing Aircraft Performance Through Flight / Propulsion System Integration

Aircraft performance enhancement by integrating the propulsion control system with the primary flight control system is demonstrated through two nonlinear flight control design examples. In the first example, high performance aircraft turning performance improvement using engine thrust modulation is demonstrated. In the second example, the flight propulsion system integration is used to achieve precise flight time control for a transport aircraft. Both control law designs are based on feedback linearization, and exploit the aircraft dynamic models. Realistic aircraft models are used to illustrate the responses of the nonlinear integrated flight/propulsion control systems.