Design and Piloted Simulation of Envelope-Protected Control for Flying Wing Aircraft

Abstract

Commercial applications of flying wing aircraft present a unique opportunity to improve fuel efficiency in aviation but also pose significant challenges in stability and control. This paper improves the existing flight control laws of a commercial flying wing concept called the Flying V. The paper designs and evaluates normal law flight controls through piloted flight simulations on a moving base flight simulator, assessing handling qualities, certification compliance, and flight envelope protection capabilities. Industry-inspired outer guidance loops include envelope protections for angle of attack, bank, pitch, and load factor, using command-limiting exponential potential functions to smoothly enforce limits and prevent longitudinal instability. The inner loop employs incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion. Results demonstrate that the Flying V model, augmented with the proposed controller, achieves Level 1 handling qualities and meets nearly all certification requirements. Flight envelope protection maneuvers confirm that exponential potential functions deliver protection performance comparable to commercial aircraft and successfully prevent unstable behavior.