Learning control system studies for the F-8 DFBW aircraft

This paper presents an adaptive learning control system for the F-8 DFBW aircraft. The purpose of the control system is to learn plant parameter curves that affect the flight of the aircraft. These parameter curves are used to adjust the gain schedule of the aircraft in a prescribed manner to account for changing aircraft characteristics. The learning control system is an adjustable blend of a gain scheduling system and an adaptive control system in the sense that it takes the best of these two systems and eliminates the undesirable features of each.