Development of Control Laws for a Flight Test Maneuver Autopilot for an F-15 Aircraft

An autopilot can be used to provide precise control to meet the demanding requirements of flight research maneuvers with high-performance aircraft. This paper presents the development of control laws within the context of flight test maneuver requirements. Linear quadratic regulator approach is utilized and the control laws are developed by treating the maneuver as a finite time tracking problem with regulation of state rates.