Variable structure control laws for aircraft manoeuvres

Formulates the design procedure and illustrates the technique using a pitch-pointing/vertical translation manoeuvre for a combat aircraft as developed by Sobel and Shapiro (1985) and Andry et al. (1983). A fully nonlinear simulation incorporating wind turbulence in the form of a Dryden spectrum as in Gault and Gunter (1968) is used to assess the performance of the controller. The performance of the variable structure control systems is compared with the performance of the purely linear control used to define the model dynamics. Conclusions are drawn about the advantages with regard to performance of the nonlinear structure against the disadvantages of having such a control type