Aircraft control system
AssigneeBAE SYSTEMS plc
InventorIan Thomas Darbyshire
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention provides an aircraft control system having: means (12) for detecting an irregularity in aircraft handling during flight; means (18) for causing temporarily a rigid body excitation in at least aportion of the aircraft; means (20) for monitoring an actual response to the excitation; means (22) for comparing the actual response and a target response to the rigid body excitation; and means (14) responsive to an output from the comparison means for determining the need for a modification of the current flight plan and for generating a corresponding control output. The invention also provides a corresponding method for controlling an aircraft.
Claims17
An aircraft control system having:
- means for detecting an irregularity in aircraft handling during flight;
- means responsive to an output from the detecting means for causing a rigid body excitation in at least a portion of the aircraft;
- means for monitoring an actual response to the rigid body excitation;
- means for effecting a comparison of the actual response with a target response of the aircraft to the rigid body excitation;
- and
- means responsive to an output from the comparison means for determining the need for a modification of the current flight plan for dealing with the irregularity and for generating a corresponding control output.
A system according to any preceding claim in which the means for causing excitation comprise means for temporarily applying a low level periodic force to a rigid portion of the aircraft frame.
A system according to any preceding claim in which the monitoring means are arranged to detect a frequency/transient characteristic of at least a portion of the aircraft.
A system according to any preceding claim in which the monitoring means are arranged to detect at least one or more of the following:
- inertial aircraft body rates, aircraft accelerations, and control surface positions.
A system according to any preceding claim in which the comparison means are arranged to generate a flight condition analysis as output.
A system according to any preceding claim in which the control output represents a flight control adjustment signal and/or a flight plan alteration signal.
A method of controlling an aircraft comprising:
- detecting an irregularity in aircraft handling during flight;
- causing a rigid body excitation in at least a portion of the aircraft in response to such detection;
- monitoring the actual response of at least a portion of the aircraft to the rigid body excitation;
- comparing the actual response with a target response of the aircraft to the rigid body excitation;
- and
- determining the need for a modification of the current flight plan for dealing with the irregularity, and generating a corresponding control output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.