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Indirect (Fly-By-Wire) flight control system for small aircraft has been developed at Department of Avionics and Control, Rzeszow University of Technology since 2000. Experimental SPS-1/A has been designed as an intuitive, human centered, simplified software-based flight control system. It would allow pilots with limited aviation experience to establish a safe control of the aircraft. Operator of the system is fully supported in normal control mode and all the properties of SPS-1/A are employed then. Second mode (simple CAS, Control Augmentation System) is reserved for more experienced operators for “more manual flying”. Third level of control should be used in emergency only, flight control computers are bypassed and control surfaces are deflected directly then. The system was tested on the board of PZL-110 “Koliber” aircraft in 2003 and next in 2006. First run of in-flight tests was preceded by detailed analysis of possibility of pilot-induced oscillations (PIO) occurrence.

The article presents the idea of Pitch and Bank Angles estimation with the use of incomplete measurement information. This idea is applied in Attitude and Heading Reference Systems used in the Fly-By-Wire control system for a general aviation aircraft. The idea of the Fly-By-Wire control system for a general aviation aircraft designed in the Department of Avionics and Control Systems is presented in brief. For estimations Lunenberger observers were used. Simulation results are based on the flight test data.

The autonomous control of an aircraft under the flare and touch-down maneuvers is an interesting problem of both theoretical and practical nature. In this paper, a concept of the autonomous landing system (ALS) for unmanned air vehicles (UAV) is presented. The flight control system is addressed to the low-cost, civilian, medium-size UAV with relatively low approach speed and typical nose-wheel landing gear. Final approach is executed automatically using differential GPS guidance system. When the flight control system selects the LANDING option at chosen altitude (based on GPS and pressure altitude), a change in aircraft’s attitude is executed. New attitude ensures safe flare and touchdown of the unmanned aircraft. Flight control system is based on the model-following design technique. Two kinds of flight control systems are taken into consideration.

In this paper, a concept is presented for a fly-by-wire (FBW) control system for general aviation aircraft. Fly-by-wire implies that the cockpit controls are not mechanically linked to aerodynamic surfaces but are used only as the commands generator for the automatic flight control system. The objective of the proposed concept for the control system is to assist pilots with limited aviation training by: 1) automatic stabilization of the aircraft's attitude, altitude, airspeed, and heading and 2) decoupling of the flight controls. Decoupling of the flight controls implies that a single cockpit control can independently control a single flight parameter. An example of this would be moving the control yoke/stick fore and aft results in a change in pitch angle without changing air speed, thus simplifying the control of the aircraft. It is in simplification of control to assist pilots with limited training that the proposed concept is particularly useful in general aviation.