A Study on Improvement of Aircraft Handling Quality for Asymmetric Loading Configuration

Modern versions of supersonic jet fighter aircraft have several different weapon loading configuration to support air-to-air combat and air-to-ground delivery of weapon modes. These various aircraft loading conditions could result in asymmetric configurations to the aircraft once delivered. These asymmetric configurations could result in decreased handling qualities for the pilot maneuvering, stability, control issues and aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. In order to eliminate or decrease these adverse impacts on the pilot`s ability, development of T-50 flight control law attempts to control the aircraft in both longitudinal and lateral-directional axes. Especially, the design of the lateral-directional roll axis control laws, utilizing a simple roll rate feedback structure and gains such as F-16, is developed for the T-50 aircraft to meet the aircraft`s design requirements. Consequently, it is found that the improved control law decreases the roll-off phenomenon in lateral axes during pitch maneuver.