Fail safe and restructurable flight control system

This paper presents a method to accommodate failures that affect aircraft dynamical characteristics, especially control surface jams on a large transport aircraft. The approach is to use the slow effectors, such as the stabilators or engines, in the feedforward manner. The simulation results indicate the performance of the RFCS. In some cases of control surface jam, the aircraft cannot recover without using the stabilators. Although the inputs to the slow effectors are determined using the nominal parameters, the effects of parameter change can be compensated by adjusting the control parameters for the fast surfaces. In the case of rudder jam, if the remaining control surfaces and the differential thrust cancel the moments produced by the stuck rudder, using the engine control improves time responses and reduces deflection angles of the control surfaces. If not, however, the aircraft starts a large rolling motion following a yawing motion. In that case, the stabilators should be used to damp the induced rolliig motion, instead of trying to directly cancel the moments caused by the stuck rudder. Unfortunately, the proposed control law for the stabilators does not give such inputs, because it does not take into account the dynamical effects which stuck surfaces have on the aircraft motions. However, we have shown through simulation that the aircraft can be recovered by giving the stabilators the control inputs that counteract the induced rolling moment. Besides, the method has also been shown through simulation to be effective in maintaining control during a situation similar to an actual accident. Finally let us mention a problem with the RFCS. As stated above, we have not established a method to select a trim point which call be reached as easily as possible using the remaining control effectors. In fact, recovery performance considerably depends on the trim states. As pointed out in Ref. 11, finding the best trim point for impaired aircraft will be one of the most difficult questions in RFCS design.