Optimal Landing of Tilt-rotor Aircraft after Engine Failure Considering Pilot Inherent Limitations

An augmented longitudinal rigid-body model is developed with a set of algebra equations describing the controls in the cockpit and the differential equations describing the pilot inherent limitations. The landing procedure after one engine failure is formulated into a nonlinear optimal control problem. XV-15 tilt-rotor aircraft is taken as the sample for the demonstration of landing in one engine failure during short takeoff. The results show that the total power required, thrust coefficient, longitudinal flapping angle and optimal controls are more relatively gentle than the solutions without considering the pilot inherent limitations. Compared with the basic longitudinal rigid-body model, the optimal solutions involve more control information.