Aircraft flight control in wind shear using partial dynamic inversion

A flight control law based on partial inversion of the longitudinal dynamics of a twin-jet transport aircraft is presented. The controller is partitioned into a slow-time-scale and a fast-time scale to simplify its design. Three types of controllers are developed: airspeed/climb rate, groundspeed/climb rate, and throttle/climb rate. For microburst encounters during approach to landing, it is found that a combination of airspeed and groundspeed regulation is quite effective for controlling the flight path to touchdown. Regulation of groundspeed to a nominal value in the performance-increasing region of the microburst prevents an inadvertent reduction in thrust, while regulation of airspeed to a nominal value in the performance-decreasing area of the microburst prevents excessive airspeed loss. The throttle/climb rate controller is used for aborted-landing encounters. The combination of groundspeed and airspeed control is used until the decision is made to abort the landing, at which point maximum throttle and a specified positive climb rate are commanded.