Minimum time flight paths of supersonic aircraft.

Abstract

In this dissertation, the methods of analysis for the minimum-time flight of supersonic aircraft are presented. There are at least two substantial contributions in this study. First, a method called "increment algorithm" is exploited. Second, the conditions for a reduced-space subarc are explicitly derived. With the first development, the starting procedure for the second-order gradient method becomes easy. This method needs to satisfy three conditions: the convexity condition, the normality condition, and the no-conjugate-point condition. In addition, the concept of this development is very helpful in dealing with a problem which involves many parameters. With the second development, a theoretical basis is provided for artificially imposing a reduced-space subarc in the analysis when a sensitivity problem is encountered. With both significant developments, the computational technique is successfully applied to solve problems of minimum-time maneuvers of supersonic aircraft in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional formulations. The various problems differ in the final conditions imposed. From the analysis in each problem, the optimal aerodynamic and thrust controls are obtained and the piloting technique to achieve the minimum time is explained.