Nonlinear longitudinal control of a supermaneuverable aircraft

A technique is described which can be used for design of feedback controllers for high-performance aircraft operating in flight conditions in which nonlinearities significantly affect performance. Designs are performed on a mathematical model of the longitudinal dynamics of a hypothetical aircraft similar to proposed supermaneuverable flight test vehicles. Nonlinear controller designs are performed using truncated solutions of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Preliminary results show that the method yields promising results.