Fundamentals of FBW Augmented Manual Control

This paper examines various FBW augmented manual control design options and criteria for achieving desired handling qualities. Design concepts with different “response types” will be reviewed. The author will re-interpret some of the classical Handling Qualities criteria in light of desired response characteristics in the time domain, which can then be evaluated through simulation time histories. A design methodology is discussed that can provide the same aircraft responses to pilot control inputs for different response types, e.g. Pitch Rate Command/Attitude Hold and Flight Path Angle (FPA) Rate Command / FPA Hold designs. The role of various feedback and feed forward signal paths and ways to minimize the need for gain scheduling, is discussed.