Considerable growth in the number of passengers and cargo transported by air is predicted. Moreover, aircraft noise and climate impact become increasingly important factors in aircraft design. These existing challenges in aviation boost interest in the design of innovative aircraft configurations. One of these configurations is a V-shaped flying wing named the Flying-V. This work aims at developing a flight control system for the Flying-V that can be used to improve the stability and handling qualities of the aircraft. Prior work shows that the Flying-V is not able to adhere to all stability and handling quality requirements at the forward and aft centre of gravity location during cruise and approach. This paper illustrates how an Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion flight control system can be used to improve the stability and handling qualities of the aircraft. Furthermore, the robustness of the flight control system is assessed by analysing the effects of aerodynamic uncertainty on the attitude tracking error of the Flying-V. Upon implementation of the flight control system, this research shows that the eigenmodes become stable. Besides that, the flight control system is proved to be robust against aerodynamic uncertainty.

Over the last five decades, the majority of commercial aircraft consisted of the traditional tube-and-wing configuration. This traditional configuration is approaching a fuel efficiency asymptote. Besides that, with the increasing number of passengers and cargo transported by air every year, and environmental impact as an important factor in aircraft design, there is a necessity for a solution that is able to boost aircraft efficiency. Currently, the faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft is working on a promising aircraft configuration, namely the Flying-V. This is a specific type of flying wing that is tailless, V-shaped, and consists of two cylindrical pressurised cabins located in the leading edge of the wing. Wind tunnel experiments show that the aircraft is longitudinally statically stable up to an angle of attack of 20¶, after that pitch break occurs. Besides that, research performed on the aerodynamic coefficients obtained using the Vortex Lattice Method and results from the maiden flight test of a scale model of the aircraft conclude that the Dutch roll mode is unstable. Therefore, this research defines a set of key stability and handling quality requirements based on civil aviation authorities combined with military standards for cruise- and approach conditions. These key requirements are consequently assessed with a simulation model of the aircraft using aerodynamic coefficients obtained from the Vortex Lattice Method and wind tunnel experiments. In an attempt to make the key stability and handling quality characteristics of the TU Delft Flying-V adhere to the defined requirements, this thesis aims to contribute to this research field by designing a nonlinear Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (INDI) flight control system that is applied to the simulation model of the aircraft. Finally, the performance of the aircraft using this flight control system is assessed and proposals for aerodynamic design changes and control layout design changes are given.

On a daily basis, the Sun experiences solarweather events, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares. Varying in size, they are characterised by violent outbursts of matter and energy from the Sun’s surface. In the rare case of a CME of significant size hitting Earth, it could have immense consequences for the electrical power grid, especially at auroral latitudes. CMEs cause large disturbances to the Earth’s geomagnetic field, which result in an increased energy flux. In turn, this would induce large power surges in power lines, electrical wiring, and pipelines. If a system is not protected from such surges, it could short-circuit and be damaged or destroyed. Adverse space weather effects are not only limited to Earth-based electronics but also satellites, which are even more exposed to space weather than Earthbased electronics due to trapped particles. Without an early warning of an incoming CME, the damage of an extreme CME would be catastrophic, causing up to $10 trillion in damage just from damaged infrastructure...