Control of aircraft with vertical take-off and landing capabilities

A system for autonomously controlling comprising:

• at least one processor programmed or configured to:
• determine a first center of gravity of the aircraft based on wings of the aircraft being in a first folded configuration before providing power to a plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft to cause the aircraft to rise vertically;
• control the plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft to cause the aircraft to rise vertically based on wings of the aircraft being in a first folded configuration, wherein, when the wings of the aircraft are in the first folded configuration, a leading edge of each wing is oriented in a vertical direction;
• set motor controller gains based on the wings of the aircraft being in the first folded configuration;
• cause the aircraft to align with a direction of airflow based on wings of the aircraft being in the first folded configuration;
• determine that the aircraft is aligned with the direction of airflow based on wings of the aircraft being in a first folded configuration and the aircraft is in flight;
• determine that the aircraft has reached a target altitude;
• determine that an orientation of the aircraft based on a pitch axis, a yaw axis, and/or a roll axis corresponds to a predetermined orientation of the aircraft based on the pitch axis, the yaw axis, and/or the roll axis;
• change the wings of the aircraft from the first folded configuration to an unfolded configuration based on an airspeed of the aircraft;
• and
• autonomously control the plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft, wherein, when autonomously controlling the plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft, the at least one processor is programmed or configured to:
• determine a second center of gravity of the aircraft based on the wings of the aircraft being in the unfolded configuration;
• and
• cause the aircraft to fly according to a flight path based on the second center of gravity of the aircraft based on the wings of the aircraft being in the unfolded configuration.

A computer program product for autonomously controlling a transition of an aircraft between a hovering configuration and a forward flight configuration, comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium including one or more instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

• determine a first center of gravity of the aircraft based on wings of the aircraft being in a first folded configuration before providing power to a plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft to cause the aircraft to rise vertically;
• control the plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft to cause the aircraft to rise vertically based on the wings of the aircraft being in a first folded configuration, wherein, when the wings of the aircraft are in the first folded configuration, a leading edge of each wing is oriented in a vertical direction;
• set motor controller gains based on the wings of the aircraft being in the first folded configuration;
• cause the aircraft to align with a direction of airflow based on the wings of the aircraft being in the first folded configuration;
• determine that the aircraft is aligned with the direction of airflow based on the wings of the aircraft being in the first folded configuration and the aircraft is in flight;
• determine that the aircraft has reached a target altitude;
• determine that an orientation of the aircraft based on a pitch axis, a yaw axis, and/or a roll axis corresponds to a predetermined orientation of the aircraft based on the pitch axis, the yaw axis, and/or the roll axis;
• change the wings of the aircraft from the first folded configuration to an unfolded configuration based on an airspeed of the aircraft;
• and
• autonomously control the plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft, wherein, the one or more instructions that cause the at least one processor to autonomously control the plurality of thrust producing components of the aircraft, cause the at least one processor to:
• determine a second center of gravity of the aircraft based on the wings of the aircraft being in the unfolded configuration;
• and
• cause the aircraft to fly according to a flight path based on the second center of gravity of the aircraft based on the wings of the aircraft being in the unfolded configuration.