How to Keep an Unbalanced Aircraft Balanced : Control Surfaces and Thrust Vectoring

Abstract: To balance and control different aircraft, it is often necessary to use some type of control system, the less stable the craft is without any control system, the more advanced the system is required to be. This project is an experiment which purpose is to attempt to control a very unstable craft using steerable rudders. A design of the craft is modeled in CAD after a rough estimation to determine the required capacity of the components. Then a simulation of the craft is modeled in Matlab’s Simulink environment, which is used to test the control system’s capabilities and determine its optimal settings. Finally a physical model is built to see if the control system is sufficiently designed to stabilize the vessel under real conditions, which when flown did not successfully balance due to insufficient roll capability. Different solutions to this problem and other potential improvements is then discussed.