Automatic approach and landing for propulsion controlled aircraft by H/sub /spl infin// control

Describes the design of a flight control system for propulsion controlled aircraft (PCA), which are controlled using thrust only. Particularly, the approach and landing phase is considered because it is the most critical one in flight control. The ILS-coupled automatic approach and landing flight control system is designed for a large transport aircraft, B-747 via H/sub /spl infin// state-feedback control. In the design, the guidance and control loops are designed at the same time, which makes it easy to optimize the whole system performance unlike one-by-one loop closure in classical control. The effectiveness of the control system is shown through computer simulation using a linear model of the B-747 aircraft in approach configuration.