DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF A DESCENT CONTROLLER FOR STRATEGIC FOUR-DIMENSIONAL AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION

摘要

A time-controlled navigation system applicable to the descent phase of flight for airline transport aircraft has been developed and simulated. The design contained herein incor¬porates the linear discrete-time sampled-data version of the linearized continuous-time system describing the aircraft's aerodynamics. Using optimal linear quadratic control tech¬niques, an optimal deterministic control regulator which is implementable on an airborne computer is designed. The navigation controller assists the pilot in complying with assigned times of arrival along a four-dimensional flight path in the presence of wind disturbances.nIn this study, the strategic air traffic control concept is also described, followed by the design of a strategic control descent path. A strategy for determining possible times of arrival at specified waypoints along the descent path and for generating the corresponding route-time profiles that are with¬in the performance capabilities of the aircraft is presented.