Flying Qualities and Flight Control

Course structure

The course is devoted to classical and modern control design techniques for autopilots and flight control systems for fixed wing aircraft. Particular levels are discussed, starting with the dampers attitude angle stabilisers, to guidance and navigation systems. Next to the design itself, important aspects of aircraft modelling, both as a rigid body and considering flexibility of the structure, are discussed.

The delivery of course will follow the “learning by doing” philosophy. The course is delivered through a series of lectures and a mixture of tutorials and interactive practical sessions.

What you will learn

On completion of the course, you will be able to: 

• Understand the conflict between flight control system architecture design for safety with functional design for control. 
• Understand the design constraints on command and stability augmentation systems for the provision of acceptable flying qualities. 
• Be able to analyse and design typical command and stability augmentation systems for longitudinal and lateral/directional motion of the aircraft using classical and advanced control techniques. 
• Objectively interpret flying and handling qualities criteria to determine flight control system design constraints and assess the performance using industry standards such as European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA’s) Certification Standard, Defence Standards (Def-Stan) and Military Specifications (MIL-SPEC). 
• Plan, manage, execute and report on the design, or the assessment, of a flight control system.

Core content

• Key considerations for flight control system architecture and multiple redundant systems to meet the performance requirements. Analyse aircraft models using aircraft state equations; Relaxed longitudinal static stability; Control system properties; Control law design. 
• Autostabiliser design using state feedback; Design of a rate command attitude hold command and stability augmentation system; Lateral-directional autostabiliser design using classical and advanced optimal control techniques such as linear quadratic controllers. 
• Introduction to aircraft handling qualities; Control anticipation parameter; High order systems; The C* criterion; The Neal and Smith criterion; The Gibson criteria; Analysis of the Gibson Dropback criterion; Law order equivalent systems; The bandwidth criterion. 
• Dedicated focus on the effects of flexible aircraft on the handling qualities demonstrated through industrial case studies. 
• Insights into the historical evolution of the flight control system in the aircraft built in 1st world war till present and justification behind the design choices.

Who should attend

The course will be of benefit to aerospace professionals who are involved in design and development of flight control laws for aerospace systems. The course is suited for aeronautical, control and simulation engineers who face challenges in assessing aircraft stability and in designing stability augmentation, flight control and autopilots for fixed wing aircraft. It is assumed the attendees would have basic knowledge of flight dynamics and fundamentals in automatic control methods, however the attendees are not expected to be an expert.

Speakers

Cranfield University:

• Dr. Mushfiqul Alam CEng FHEA – Module leader: Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Flight Dynamics 
• Roger Bailey – Former Chief Test Pilot, National Flying Laboratory Centre (NFLC)

Invited Guest Speakers: 

• Professor Martin Hromcik – Professor of Control Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic

Concessions

20% discount for Cranfield Alumni. 
10% discount when registering 3 or more delegates, from the same organisation at the same time.  

Accommodation fees are not included in the discount scheme. Please ask about our discount scheme at time of booking.

Location and travel

Cranfield University is situated in Bedfordshire close to the border with Buckinghamshire. The University is located almost midway between the towns of Bedford and Milton Keynes and is conveniently situated between junctions 13 and 14 of the M1.

London Luton, Stansted and Heathrow airports are 30, 90 and 90 minutes respectively by car, offering superb connections to and from just about anywhere in the world. 

Location address