RECONFIGURABLE CONTROL OF AIRCRAFT WITH PARTIAL ELEVATOR FAILURE

This paper investigates the regulation of the flight path angle and velocity of an aircraft in the event of a partial elevator failure. The nonlinear output regulation is achieved by a reconfigured controller. A composite observer estimates the stuck elevator position and the states. It was found that the partial elevator failure could be wholly compensated by the remaining effective elevator control surfaces. Also in comparison to a total elevator failure the redundancy that allows only a partial elevator failure significantly enhances the window of safety.