Envelope protection for aircraft encountering upset condition based on dynamic envelope enlargement

Upset condition encountered by an aircraft in flight could pose great threat to flight safety, which is of chief importance in civil aviation. The causal factors have the nonlinear and multiple characteristics, and as a result the conventional envelope protection system cannot successfully do with the condition. So dynamic envelope based on differential manifold theory, which can take more coupling factors into account, is proposed as a basis to design a novel envelope protection system. Then the relationship between the dynamic envelope and the control coefficient or pilot command is obtained, and the result shows that the dynamic envelope can be enlarged with the change of control coefficient. Furthermore, quantification of flight security is realized via defining relative distance between flight state and dynamic envelope, which can detect whether there is a risk for an aircraft in flight. Finally, an envelope protection system based on dynamic envelope enlargement is proposed on the basis. NASA’s Generic Transport Model encountering hazard gust wind in climbing phase is taken as an example to verify the system’s feasibility. The result shows that the system can give a better operation encountering upset condition and to a certain extent reduce the number of accidents or incidents. Keywords: Differential manifold theory, Dynamic envelope, Flight safety, Loss of control, Region of attraction