A Survey of the Dynamics and Control of Aircraft.pdfVIP

Nonlinear Dynamics and Systems Theory, 8 4 2008 375–388 A Survey of the Dynamics and Control of Aircraft During Aerial Refueling W. Mao and F.O. Eke ? Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering University of California Davis Davis, CA 95616, USA Received: February 14, 2008; Revised: September 22, 2008 Abstract: Recent heightened interest in autonomous refueling of unmanned aerial vehicles has stimulated research activity in the area of aerial refueling in general. Aircraft aerial refueling research can be divided into four general areas: in?uence of tanker aircraft wake turbulence on the receiver aircraft, the dynamics of the drogue and hose, automatic ?ight control system design for aerial refueling, experiments and ?ight tests related to the practical implemen- tation of autonomous aerial refueling system. This survey summarizes research activities as well as the current state of knowledge in these areas. Keywords: Aerial refueling; variable mass system; aircraft dynamics. Mathematics Subject Classi?cation 2000 : 93C20, 93C35, 93C85. 1 Introduction Aerial refueling is the practice of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another during ?ight. It allows the receiving aircraft to remain airborne longer, and to take o? with a greater payload. Aerial refueling operation with manned aircraft has been implemented by many countries since after the Second World War. In-?ight refueling was ?rst proposed in 1917 by Alexander P. de Seversky, who was then a pilot in the Russian Navy. The motive was to increase the range of combat aircraft. De Seversky soon emigrated to the United States and became an engineer in the War Department. He initiated work on Aerial Refueling in the United States. Although experiments in aerial refueling started as ? Corresponding author: foeke@ c 2008 InforMath Publishing Group/1562-8353 print /1813-7385 online /w