Autopilot for Reconfigurable Flight Control System

The main factor in design and operation of aircraft is safety of an airplane. The “safety culture” developed in aeronautics results in detailed regulations and certification procedures in all phases of aircraft design and operation. But despite that, aircraft safety depends on several unpredictable factors, such as the hostile actions both inside and outside of the aircraft. When failures occur during the flight, the most important actions are aimed at maintaining the aircraft controllability. The aircraft control system should be fault tolerant and ensure aircraft controllability in the event of the failure of a part of the flight control system. In this paper the influence of control surface failures on autopilot operation has been investigated. The autopilot is designed for business jet airplanes and fulfills the main functions of the real autopilot system in longitudinal and lateral directions. The autopilot structure allows implementation of various methods of reconfiguration for aircraft protection.