Control of Spacecraft and Aircraft Review

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(More customer reviews)I am at a loss on what to say about this book. In some ways the book is not what it should be as in the analysis of spacecraft attitude control. The emphasis here is the simplification of the nonlinear Euler equations to simple linear equations to which bang-bang and other control types are then applied. Nothing wrong with that. But if he had left the equations nolinear and applied sliding mode control the results would have been virtually identical and more profound and usable. At the same time there is much information on spacecraft attitude control in the book which is nearly impossible to find elsewhere. The same is true of helicopter and airplane control. The complete emphasis on LQR control is quaint as it is the best possible control. What about more realistic control systems for real aircraft? There is a little in the book on this but very little. The sections on control of flexible systems correspond to the way many missle modelers approach the problem because of its simplicity and usefulness and several useful and interesting examples are worked out. Overall this is a useful reference for certain subject areas but it takes a sophisticated reader to separate the wheat from the chaff. It must be admitted, however, that learning the entire book would not be a bad thing for anyone. Just limiting.

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Here a leading researcher provides a comprehensive treatment of the design of automatic control logic for spacecraft and aircraft. In this book Arthur Bryson describes the linear-quadratic-regulator (LQR) method of feedback control synthesis, which coordinates multiple controls, producing graceful maneuvers comparable to those of an expert pilot.The first half of the work is about attitude control of rigid and flexible spacecraft using momentum wheels, spin, fixed thrusters, and gimbaled engines. Guidance for nearly circular orbits is discussed. The second half is about aircraft attitude and flight path control. This section discusses autopilot designs for cruise, climb-descent, coordinated turns, and automatic landing. One chapter deals with controlling helicopters near hover, and another offers an introduction to the stabilization of aeroelastic instabilities. Throughout the book there is a strong emphasis on the mathematical modeling necessary for designing a good feedback control system. The appendixes summarize analysis of linear dynamic systems, synthesis of analog and digital feedback control, simulation, and modeling of flexible vehicles.

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Automatic Control of Aircraft and Missiles Review

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(More customer reviews)Blakelock's book is probably the most practical flight control book out there for both planes and missiles. Unfortunatly fly-by-wire and some other newer methods now practicable because of increased on-board computing power are not really covered but are hinted at in places. This tome provides probably the easiest to understand approach to aircraft control in existance. Straightforward and oriented to a step-by-step approach, it beats many of the "classic" texts popular with many professors hands down. Being a controls kind of guy, I particularly enjoy his use of normalized stability derivatives which result in controller designs already in units that can be directly used for servomotor design. A good understanding of this book will be of enormous use to even the most moderm airplane control system designer. For many years this book has been the secret weapon of those "in the know".
This book is oriented almost exclusively to frequency domain methods but there is a state variable approach chapter. Currently, there is a return to state-space methods movement in progress but this material in Blakelock is mandatory even for understanding the state-space methods. Examine Stengel's new work Flight Dynamics.


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This Second Edition continues the fine tradition of its predecessor by exploring the various automatic control systems in aircraft and on board missiles. Considerably expanded and updated, it now includes new or additional material on: the effectiveness of beta-beta feedback as a method of obtaining coordination during turns using the F-15 as the aircraft model; the root locus analysis of a generic acceleration autopilot used in many air-to-air and surface-to-air guided missiles; the guidance systems of the AIM-9L Sidewinder as well as bank-to-turn missiles; various types of guidance, including proportional navigation and line-of-sight and lead-angle command guidance; the coupling of the output of a director fire control system into the autopilot; the analysis of multivariable control systems; and methods for modeling the human pilot, plus the integration of the human pilot into an aircraft flight control system. Also features many new additions to the appendices.

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