Integrated Side Force Control of Aircraft in the Task of Flight Path Stabilization during Landing

The paper investigated the effectiveness of using direct side-force control (DSFC) to improve the quality and accuracy of automatic lateral control of non-maneuverable aircraft during approach and landing. It is hypothesized that, on advanced aircraft, aerodynamic shields capable of generating transverse aerodynamic forces will be installed on engine pylons or nacelles, or alternatively, jet engines will be equipped with devices for thrust vector control. Control systems incorporating DSFC alongside conventional control elements belong to the class of two-channel systems, characterized by the presence of slow and fast subsystems, with the latter exerting significantly less control influence. Consequently, there is a need to optimize the integrated utilization of traditional control mechanisms and DSFC. The control system design employed a hierarchical architecture. The inner control loop that performs executive functions is comprised of: stabilization system the roll angle during maneuvering by means of coordinated lateral control, or stabilization system the prescribed lateral overload during control without roll. In both configurations, a unified two-channel stabilization scheme was implemented to counteract wind disturbances, specifically designed for regulating the prescribed lateral overload. To account for the limited actuation resource of DSFC, a cascade control scheme was adopted, combining an autonomous yaw control loop (slow subsystem) with the DSFC loop (fast subsystem with resource constraints).The proposed methodology facilitates the integration of DSFC with standard trajectory control systems. А schematic of an astatic stabilization system for the prescribed lateral overload incorporating DSFC is presented. Transient response characteristics and simulation results illustrating the system’s reaction to lateral wind gusts are provided. The research findings demonstrate that an aircraft control system equipped with DSFC significantly improves the accuracy of flight path stabilization under wind disturbance conditions.

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