Aircraft, fly-by-wire systems, and controllers are provided. An aircraft includes a trim control system and a fly-by-wire system. The trim control system is configured for controlling surfaces of the aircraft. The fly-by-wire system is communicatively coupled with the trim control system and includes an input device and a controller. The input device is configured to receive a re-trim input from a user. The controller is communicatively coupled with the input device and is configured to control the trim control system, to obtain the re-trim input from the user, and to set a pitch trim of the aircraft based on a stable flight condition at a present airspeed of the aircraft in response to the re-trim input from the input device.

The aircraft control system 100 includes an inceptor with a set of primary inceptor axes and a set of secondary inceptor inputs. The inceptor can optionally include a hand rest, a thumb groove, a set of finger grooves, passive soft stops, and/or any other additional elements. The aircraft control system can optionally include a flight controller, aircraft sensors, effectors, and a haptic feedback mechanism. However, the aircraft control system 100 can additionally or alternatively include any other suitable components.

A system of fall back flight control configured for use in aircraft includes an input control configured to receive a pilot input and generate a control datum. System includes a flight controller communicatively coupled to the input control and configured to receive the control datum and generate an output datum. The system includes the actuator having a primary mode in which the actuator is configured to move the at least a portion of the aircraft as a function of the output datum and a fall back mode in which the actuator is configured to move the at least a portion of the aircraft as a function of the control datum. The actuator configured to receive the control datum, receive the output datum, detect a loss of communication with the flight controller, and select the fall back mode as a function of the detection.

A VTOL inceptor arrangement is handled by a single pilot and consists of or comprises a first inceptor and a second inceptor. The first inceptor is capable of controlling at least one axis of movement and the second inceptor is capable of controlling at least three axes of movement. The first inceptor is configured to be operated by a first hand of the pilot, and the second inceptor is configured to be operated by a second hand of the pilot different from the first hand. These two hand-operated inceptors enable use of reliable operation based on stick motion (i.e., the pilot's respective hands each grasp a respective inceptor) instead of relying on movement of switches, knobs or the like—which may not allow precision control under vibration or turbulent environments or conditions.

Two methods of combining multiple response types into a single flexible command model are provided and include receiving a pilot stick input, generating an aircraft response to the pilot stick input that is a continuous blend of response types by including calculable time-varying coefficients set as a function of a magnitude of the pilot stick input and other aircraft states such as airspeed, imposing at least an angular acceleration command limit and using other non-linear elements to optimize the aircraft response to the pilot stick input.

In an embodiment, a method includes: adjusting a first flight control device of a rotorcraft to control flight around a first axis of the rotorcraft, the first flight control device exercising flight control authority around the first axis of the rotorcraft; detecting a failure of the first flight control device; transitioning at least a portion of the flight control authority around the first axis of the rotorcraft from the first flight control device to a second flight control device of the rotorcraft, the transitioning being performed automatically in response to detecting the failure of the first flight control device; and adjusting the second flight control device to control flight around the first axis of the rotorcraft, the second flight control device being adjusted by a first control process when the rotorcraft is in a first flight mode, the second flight control device being adjusted by a second control process when the rotorcraft is in a second flight mode.

An airspeed estimation system of an aircraft includes an electronic airspeed rate modeler unit configured to output an estimated airspeed rate signal indicating an estimated airspeed rate of the aircraft. The estimated airspeed rate signal is based on a longitudinal body acceleration of the aircraft and at least one adaptive parametric airspeed model. The airspeed estimation system further includes an electronic airspeed estimator unit in signal communication with the airspeed rate modeler unit. The airspeed estimator unit is configured to determine an estimated airspeed of the aircraft based on the estimated airspeed rate signal.

Installation of powered actuators in the leading edge of a control surface in order to have a better weight distribution. The systems described herein propose an actuation system with a static ground structure used to move a control surface of an aircraft. The actuation system, and the ground structure are aligned with the center of rotation of the control surface, providing the aircraft with flutter suppression. This proposal is an approach to use the actuator in a place favorable to the mass balancing and reducing or even dismissing the usage of mass balancing, saving weight and cost.

The aircraft control systems and methods disclosed herein are configured to detect a residual error associated with a flight control computer of an aircraft and mitigate the effect(s) of such residual error in order to maintain safe operation of the aircraft. In some embodiments, the systems and methods are configured to detect an out-of-flight-envelope situation of the aircraft and determine whether or not the flight control computer is attempting to recover the aircraft from the out-of-flight-envelope situation. If the flight control computer is perceived as attempting to recover the aircraft from the out-of-flight-envelope situation, the flight control computer is permitted to continue controlling the aircraft. Otherwise, the excursion outside of the normal flight envelope is perceives as potentially having been caused by a residual error and the flight control computer is prevented from continuing to control the aircraft.

A force fight mitigation system comprising: control means configured to provide a position command to each of two or more actuators arranged to position a surface, the position command indicative of a desired position of the actuator relative to the surface; means to detect the actual position of the actuator relative to the surface in response to the position command; and means to determine an offset between the desired position and the actual position and to store a rigging correction based on the offset; wherein, for each actuator, an offset is determined for each of three or more desired positions.