Design of automatic climbing controller for large civil aircraft

Abstract This paper focuses on automatic climbing control methods for large civil aircraft. The key technique is how to design automatic flight control laws that meet the requirements of flight performance indexes and have good characteristics of restraining various disturbances. The classical engineering methods are used to solve the above problem. Based on the aerodynamic data of Boeing707, a nonlinear model of large civil aircraft is established. Linear models which are divided into longitudinal and lateral equations are obtained by trim and linearization. The design of longitudinal control laws uses C ⁎ criterion, three climbing schemes including pitch control mode, vertical velocity control mode and altitude control mode are designed and mutually compared. For lateral control problem, by the feedback angle of sideslip, the bank attitude control with good effect is achieved. The simulation results indicate the designed control laws can meet the requirements of performance indexes, and have satisfied characteristics of anti-gust disturbance.