Development of an Automatic Flight Path Controller for a DA42 General Aviation Aircraft

The development of an automatic flight path controller, as part of a modular automatic flight guidance and control system, is presented, along with flight test results using a DA42 M-NG flying testbed. The basic principle for the flight path controller is a reference model based dynamic inversion of the translational equations of motions, with pseudo-control hedging to account for inner loop dynamics and plant response deficits. The kinematic frame flight path commands are transformed into body-frame commands executed by inner loop and autothrust controllers for transverse and linear force control. Requirements and verification activities are briefly discussed. Flight test results demonstrates the feasibility of the path control approach, with good tracking and disturbance performance.