FLIGHT MECHANICS MODELING and ANALYSIS

Today the subject of Flight Mechanics: Modeling and Analysis has assumed great importance in the design, development, analysis, and evaluation (via flight tests) of aerospace vehicles, especially in fly-by-wire aircraft development programs. Study of flight mechanics is important since the understanding of flight dynamics of aerospace vehicles presupposes a good understanding of flight mechanics. It is proposed that this study be undertaken via a systems approach without undermining the importance of the related aerodynamics, which provides the basis of flight mechanics modeling and analysis. The point is that the approach via systems concepts and methods provides natural synergy with flight mechanics applications to design and development of flight control laws, flight simulation, aircraft system identification, parameter estimation, and handling qualities evaluation for a piloted vehicle. Interestingly, several such aspects also apply to unmanned (uninhabited) aerial vehicles and micro-air vehicles. Collectively all the above topics are generally studied and researched under the banner of flight mechanics and control.

In Flight Mechanics: Modeling and Analysis we study some of these topics and emphasize the use of flight mechanics knowledge via modeling and analysis. We illustrate several concepts and methods of flight mechanics as applied to system identification, parameter estimation, simulation, and handling qualities evaluations. We use several numerical simulation examples coded in MATLAB® (MATLAB is the trademark of MathWorks Ltd., Natick, Massachusetts, USA). The user should have access to PC-based MATLAB software and other toolboxes: signal processing, control system, system identification, neural networks, and fuzzy logic.

There are several good books on flight mechanics/dynamics but these either do not approach the subject from the systems point of view or the treatment of such aspects as outlined here is somewhat limited or specialized. Understanding of one field enhances the understanding of the other. The systems approach inherently borrows ideas and concepts from applied mathematics, for example, mathematical model building, especially based on empirical methods, control theory, and signal/data analysis methods. Also, concepts from linear algebra and matrix com­putation are widely used. These basic aspects including a fundamental course on aerodynamics are studied at the undergraduate level. Collective study of these concepts and methods with flight mechanics analysis lends itself to a synergy, which can be described in short as flight mechanics modeling and analysis. This book follows the systems theory approach, which will help readers enhance their understanding of the concepts and application of flight mechanics. It brings about the interrelatedness of various related topics of analysis and modeling. The new gener­ation paradigms of artificial neural network and fuzzy logic-based modeling are gradually making inroads into flight dynamics, modeling, and associated areas of parameter estimation, simulation, and control technologies. Hence, these topics are also discussed here, perhaps, for the first time in a book on flight mechanics.

The end users of this book on the integrated technology of flight mechanics will be those involved in aerosystems educational institutions, aerospace research and development laboratories, aerospace industries, flight test agencies, and transporta – tion/automotive industries. Interestingly, others in some industrial and mechanical engineering centers might benefit from certain aspects of this book.

Jitendra R. Raol Jatinder Singh