A fly-by-wire system for a rotorcraft includes a computing device having control laws. The control laws are operable to engage a level-and-climb command in response to a switch of a pilot control assembly being selected. The level-and-climb command establishes a roll-neutral (“wings level”) attitude with the rotorcraft increasing altitude. The switch may be disposed on a collective control of the pilot control assembly (e.g., a button on a grip of the collective control). Selection of the switch may correspond to a button depress. The level-and-climb command may include a roll command and a collective pitch command. One or more control laws may be further operable to increase or decrease forward airspeed in response to pilot engagement of the level-and-climb command. The level-and-climb command may correspond to a go-around maneuver, an abort maneuver, or an extreme-attitude-recovery maneuver to be performed by the rotorcraft.

A distributed control system with supplemental attitude adjustment including an aircraft control having an engaged state and a disengaged state. The system also including a plurality of flight components and a plurality of aircraft components communicatively connected to the plurality of flight components, wherein each aircraft component is configured to receive an aircraft command and generate a response command directing the flight components as a function of supplemental attitude. The supplemental attitude based at least in part on the engagement datum and generating a supplemental attitude includes choosing a position supplemental attitude if the aircraft control is disengaged and choosing a velocity supplemental attitude if the aircraft control is engaged. In generating the response command, the aircraft attitude is combined with the supplemental attitude to obtain an aggregate attitude, and the aircraft component is configured to generate the response command based on the aggregate attitude.

A distributed control system with supplemental attitude adjustment including an aircraft control having an engaged state and a disengaged state. The system also including a plurality of flight components and a plurality of aircraft components communicatively connected to the plurality of flight components, wherein each aircraft component is configured to receive an aircraft command and generate a response command directing the flight components as a function of supplemental attitude. The supplemental attitude based at least in part on the engagement datum and generating a supplemental attitude includes choosing a position supplemental attitude if the aircraft control is disengaged and choosing a velocity supplemental attitude if the aircraft control is engaged. In generating the response command, the aircraft attitude is combined with the supplemental attitude to obtain an aggregate attitude, and the aircraft component is configured to generate the response command based on the aggregate attitude.

A method for dynamically controlling the attitude of a rotary-wing drone. The method includes dynamically controlling the attitude of the drone when the drone is flying using lift of each of four wings of the drone, by controlling the attitude of the drone by sending differentiated commands to one or more propulsion units of the drone so as to rotate the drone about a roll axis and/or pitch axis and/or heading axis of the drone from a current angular position to a final angular position, the axes being defined in the reference point of the drone.

A device for assisting in the landing of an aircraft in a flare phase comprising a control stick, a first unit for acquiring current flight parameters of the aircraft, a second unit for acquiring a current deflection angle of the control stick, a computation unit for computing a difference between the current deflection angle of the control stick and a target deflection angle of the control stick, and an acoustic emission unit configured to automatically emit a warning or guidance sound signal in the cockpit of the aircraft, according to the difference between the current deflection angle and the target deflection angle of the control stick.

Methods and apparatus to control aircraft horizontal stabilizers are described herein. One described method includes calculating, using a processor, a desired movement of a horizontal stabilizer of an aircraft to counteract a pitching moment of the aircraft, and controlling the horizontal stabilizer based on the desired movement.

A system and method for tilt dead reckoning is provided. The system and method allows an autopilot of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to perform dead reckoning with a hovering vehicle during GNSS signal loss by estimating the position and velocity of the vehicle based on its pitch and roll angles and known vehicle dynamics. The position and velocity are estimated using tables set up by a UAV integration engineer that provide the expected airspeed at given pitch and roll angles in steady state. This allows the UAV to attempt to follow waypoints when GNSS signal is lost without using any additional sensors.

Drone (5) which comprises a plurality of propellers (16) driven by motors (17) supported by at least one structure (18), in which a plurality of converters (15) are arranged around the structure (18) to convert electricity to high voltage in low voltage electricity. The present description also relates to a method of controlling the attitude of the drone (5).

Physical and logical components of a long line loiter control system address control of a long line loiter maneuver conducted beneath a carrier, such as a fixed-wing aircraft. Control may comprise identifying, predicting, and reacting to estimated states and predicted states of the carrier, a suspended load control system, and a long line. Identifying, predicting, and reacting to estimated states and predicted states may comprise determining characteristics of state conditions over time as well as response time between state conditions. Reacting may comprise controlling a hoist of the carrier, controlling thrusters of the suspended load control system, and or controlling or issuing flight control instructions to the carrier so as not to increase the response time and or to avoid a hazard.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes a central body, an arm, and a propulsion unit. The arm extends outwardly from the central body. The propulsion unit is coupled to the arm. At least one of the arm or the propulsion unit is adjustable in response to a change in a center of gravity of the UAV.