MAXIMUM FINAL ENERGY CHANDELLE FOR SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Dr., Aeronautical Department, Military Technical College,Cairo,Egypt, Member AIAA.

Abstract

The chandelle is a very important three dimensional maneuver used during aircombat. The final total energy per unit weight of the air-plane is an important criterion required to be maximum at the end of the maneuver. A simple criterion function leads to the increase of the time of performance of the chandelle. This paper introduces a compound criterion function that includes the time of performance of the chadelle. This approach enables to solve the maximum final energy chadelle with a limitation upon the time of performance of the maneuver. The gradient method is used to solve this nonlinear trajectory op-timzation problem. The obtained optimal control laws have different strategies for the supersonic aircraft and for the jet trainer. The gain of energy for supersonic fighter is very high compared to the nominal solution. This paper shows that classical solution of the chadelle is not suitable in this case.