Vertical gust suppression system for transport aircraft

A system for Vertical Gust Suppression, the system comprising:

• one or more sensors to collect air data and inertial data for the aircraft during flight operations;
• a gust estimator operatively coupled to the one or more sensors to:
• determine an inertial angle of attack for the aircraft and a total angle of attack for the aircraft;
• determine a gust angle of attack as a difference between the inertial angle of attack and the total angle of attack;
• determine a true air speed of the aircraft;
• and
• estimate a level of vertical wind gust by scaling the gust angle of attack by the true airspeed of the aircraft;
• filters operatively coupled to the gust estimator to generate a command to aircraft flight controls based on the estimated level of vertical wind gust when the estimated level of vertical wind gust exceeds a predetermined threshold level, wherein no command is generated responsive to the estimated level of vertical wind gust when the estimated level of vertical wind gust is below the predetermined threshold level;
• and
• at least one control surface which actuates in response to the command and aircraft flight controls to change at least one of a vertical acceleration, a pitch acceleration, a pitch rate, a pitch attitude, or a structural load of the aircraft due to the vertical wind gust.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage media including computer-program instructions executable by a flight control computer, the instructions configured to cause the flight control computer to perform operations comprising:

• collecting air data and inertial data for the aircraft during flight operations;
• determining an inertial angle of attack for the aircraft and a total angle of attack for the aircraft;
• determining a gust angle of attack as a difference between the inertial angle of attack and the total angle of attack;
• determining a true air speed of the aircraft;
• estimating a level of vertical wind gust by scaling the gust angle of attack by the true airspeed of the aircraft;
• generating a command based on the estimated level of vertical wind gust when the estimated level of vertical wind gust exceeds a predetermined threshold level, wherein no command is generated responsive to the estimated level of vertical wind gust when the estimated level of vertical wind gust is below the predetermined threshold level;
• and
• wherein an aircraft response to the actuation of at least one control surface changes at least one of a vertical acceleration, a pitch acceleration, a pitch rate, a pitch attitude, or a structural load of the aircraft due to the turbulence.