Gliding Guidance of High L/D Hypersonic Vehicles

This paper investigates gliding guidance of hypersonic vehicles with high lift-to-drag (L/D) ratios. The application scenarios envisioned are largely those that may be called suborbital entry, although orbital entry cases are not excluded. An adaptive predictorcorrector algorithm is used for guidance purposes. For high L/D vehicles a unique challenge is found to be large phugoid oscillations in the gliding trajectory. A simple and effective feedback mechanism is developed for trajectory damping control in conjunction with the predictor-corrector guidance algorithm to eliminate these phugoid oscillations. Another unique capability illustrated in this paper is end-to-end mission planning, where the hypersonic gliding vehicle is launched by a multi-stage rocket, and hypersonic gliding followed. This paper shows that shaping the ascent trajectory differently from conventional ballistic launch can bring significant benefits to the gliding phase in terms of dramatically reduced the heating and dynamic load stresses.

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