Report of the Second Piloted Aircraft Flight Control System - Acgsc.org

to hare thq coakpit controle command a control eyetern in tau& a way
that the forcer epplied at the controlr -produce predictable and prychologiocilly
acorrecta airplane reeponree while the automatic control
eyrtam artificially rtabllirer and coordinate8 the flight. It may,
however, be poeeible or evsn deeirable to take certain libertiee vlth
the normal or natural reeponeee to control forcee applied at the
cockpit controlr.
In general, the natuml reoponree are ae follows:
novator foroe oommende a proportional normal acceleration (Vg") or a
proprtional change from the trim airrpeed.
Aileron foroe commendr a proportional wing tip helix angle (roll rate
at a given drrpeod).
Rudder f oroe comnmadr a proportional ddeelip.
One mn't add ormger and appler, however, and the rchge in which foroe
ir meamred directly and ie ueed to cornmead an artificial rtability
rystem to probrrce natural rerponler require8 that the primary referenoer
for the rtabiliriog ryrtem be the flight variable8 tmich it ir
&aired to command.
No nruh ryrtem yet drtr, but in tho fall of 1950, at the behest
of the late Wor Patriok L. Kolly, the All Weather Flying Mvidon
undertook to mponaor the dwolopment of 8uch a rtabiliring ryotem at
the Oornell Aeroneptioal Lsboratory. Thir ryetem ham been described
in another --or.
At the mame time a dl
group under the energetic leaderrhip
of Major Kelly beg= to conrtnrct a jury artificial rtability eyetsm
vlth force commandr, ueing ounponentr which were readily aveilable.
Right uring automatic rtability and force control wae firet achiwed
by All Weather mng Divirion on 5 Maroh 1951. Throughout the ~mmer
and. fall of that yaw the automatic rtability and force control rystem
war terted in reveral oonfigurationr. It ir the rtory of thore experimentr
that ir the principal mbj ect of thir paper. No rocordr of
tertr rerultr were ever made. We out and we tried and cut -and tried
again. Our goal war an airplane that had the feature8 of the ryrtm--
to ehow that it odd be mabe to work and that pilot8 did llke it.
Its operational auccere war to hare been meaaured later.' All Weather
Plying Sectionlr rerearch on force control var unfortunately out short
on 7 ITormber 1951 when the tort airplane crashed.
40 rtart wlth there war an eirplane with an automatic pilot
inrtalled. !The force control tmb-ryrtm will probably find it8 prinoipd
uraiulnerr in alr&ft in which rpae and weight are at a prmium
and the pilot murt be raliod on to do ar much ar he can. The