Design and development of a wind tunnel model for high angle of attack active control experiments

Aircraft that are able to fly at high angles of attack are very maneuverable. There are a number of interesting control problems associated with fighters performing PST maneuvers. A wind tunnel model was built to help develop and evaluate control law design methods. The rig design is described in some detail. Some open loop features of the model that restrict the achievable closed loop performance are presented. The use of H_∞ loop-shaping to design controllers for the rig is motivated. A preliminary controller design is presented and tested in simulation.