Flight Control Systems for fuel efficient wake surfing

Michael A. Niestroy, Robert Luckner, Andre Koloschin, Nelson Brown, Curtis E. Hanson, Carsten Doll
2020 AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum   unpublished
This paper gives an overview of a flight control architecture developed during studies for a trail aircraft flying in formation with a leading aircraft in order to save fuel, commonly referred to as air wake surfing for efficiency (AWSE). The paper starts with an overview of the motivation for formation flight followed by a generic flight control architecture and accompanying algorithms that achieve formation flight. Finally, a summary of some of the results from simulation of a formation of
more » ... boprop transport aircraft and formations of a tanker or high-speed transport aircraft with fourth generation fighters is presented.
doi:10.2514/6.2020-1003 fatcat:3cinsvtnsvekrfk4xxtdofiv3i