Aircraft having thrust to weight dependent transitions

An aircraft operable to transition between thrust-borne lift in a VTOL orientation and wing-borne lift in a biplane orientation, the aircraft comprising:

• an airframe having first and second wings with first and second pylons extending therebetween, the first and second wings each having first and second outboard nacelle stations;
• a two-dimensional distributed thrust array attached to the airframe, the thrust array including a plurality of outboard propulsion assemblies coupled to the first and second outboard nacelle stations of the first and second wings, the thrust array operable to provide thrust for the aircraft;
• and
• a flight control system coupled to the airframe and operable to independently control a rotor speed and a thrust vector of each of the propulsion assemblies;
• wherein the flight control system is configured to:
• select, based on whether the aircraft is in a low thrust to weight configuration or a high thrust to weight configuration, a transition procedure for transitioning the aircraft from the VTOL orientation to the biplane orientation;
• and
• implement the selected transition procedure to cause the aircraft to transition from the VTOL orientation to the biplane orientation;
• wherein, in the low thrust to weight configuration, the selected transition procedure comprises establishing a pitch down flight attitude while engaging in collective thrust vectoring of the outboard propulsion assemblies to maintain hover stability followed by collectively reducing the thrust vector angles to initiate forward flight followed by further collective reduction in the thrust vector angles and increasing the pitch down attitude until the thrust vectors and the wings are substantially horizontal;
• and
• wherein, in the high thrust to weight configuration, the selected transition procedure comprises maintaining a level flight attitude while collectively increasing the thrust vector angles of the outboard propulsion assemblies to initiate forward flight followed by maintaining the thrust vector angles and increasing the pitch down attitude until the thrust vectors are substantially horizontal followed by collectively reducing thrust vector angles and increasing the pitch down attitude while maintaining the thrust vectors substantially horizontal until the wings are substantially horizontal.