Simulator Testing of Longitudinal Flying Qualities with L1 Adaptive Control

A study was conducted to determine if an adaptive controller can recover level 1 handling qualities on a piloted, simulated aircraft in a degraded state. Four different aircraft models of varying handling qualities levels were used as a test data-set to determine if all four could be augmented via the adaptive controller to level 1 handling qualities. Two experienced test pilots were used to judge the aircraft flying qualities using the Cooper Harper Rating Scale, and then an attempt to correlate those results to a handling qualities rating is made.