Minimal Maneuvers Of High Performance Aircraft In A Vertical Plane PDF Download

The objective of this study is to find the throttle controls and trajectories which yield the minimum turning times for a high performance aircraft with thrust reversal capability. The aircraft remains in the vertical plane allowing only pull-up and split-s maneuvers. A second-order parameter optimization method coupled with the suboptimal control approach is used to solve the minimum time-to-turn problem. The results of the study found that trajectories restricted to the vertical plane gave different results, and in at least one case better results, than those not so constrained. The results also indicate that depending on the maneuver performed, thrust reversal is beneficial in reducing the minimum time-to-turn regardless of whether the aircraft's initial velocity is above or below corner speed. Finally, the results demonstrate that thrust reversal can be utilized for minimum time turns with resulting increases in specific energy. (AUTHOR).