Flight Vehicle System Identification

Flight Vehicle System Identification, Second Edition offers a systematic approach to flight vehicle system identification and covers exhaustively the time-domain methodology. Beginners, as well as practicing engineers, researchers, and working professionals who wish to refresh or broaden their knowledge of flight vehicle system identification, will find this book highly beneficial. It addresses in detail the theoretical and practical aspects of various parameter estimation methods, including those in the stochastic framework focusing on nonlinear models, cost function, optimization methods, and residual analysis. A pragmatic and balanced account of pros and cons in each case is provided. The book also presents data gathering and model validation, covering both large-scale and high-fidelity modeling. Real-world problems dealing with a variety of flight vehicle applications are addressed, and solutions are provided. Examples encompass such problems as estimation of aerodynamic stability and control derivatives from flight data, flight-path reconstruction, nonlinearities in control surface effectiveness, stall hysteresis, unstable aircraft, flexible aircraft model integrating rigid-body and structural dynamics, wake vortex encounters, and other critical considerations. Based on the author's years of experience, Flight Vehicle System Identification, Second Edition also provides recommendations for overcoming problems likely to be faced in developing complex nonlinear and high-fidelity models and can help the novice negotiate the challenges of developing highly accurate mathematical models and aerodynamic databases from experimental flight data. Software that runs under MATLAB(R) and sample flight data are provided to assist the reader in reworking the examples presented in the text. The extended software is highly flexible to use and suitable for advanced applications; it can also be adapted to the reader's own interest.