A backstepping design for flight path angle control

A nonlinear approach to flight path angle control is presented. Using backstepping, a globally stabilizing control law is derived. Although the nonlinear nature of the lift force is considered, the pitching moment to be produced is only linear in the measured states. Thus, the resulting control law is much simpler than if feedback linearization had been used. The free parameters that spring from the backstepping design are used to achieve a desired linear behavior around the operating point.