Design of actuator rate for flying wing aircraft

The actuator rate is one of the important constraints in designing flight control system. When the actuator rate is saturated, the disturbed aircraft or the aircraft under control may go into pilot induced oscillation (PIO) resulting in lowering the flying quality. The design method of limiting the actuator rate value for flying wing was built. The design examples of actuator rate for the triaxial main control surface of high-aspect-ratio flying wing aircraft were introduced. The effects of actuator rate limit on dynamic response characteristics of the aircraft and a combined parameter composed of aerodynamic derivative of aircraft, moment of inertia, and aspect-ratio were analyzed. The result indicates that for aircraft with high-aspect-ratio the requested actuator rate of roll control surface is the highest, later is in the pitch control and that of the directional control surface is the lowest. The research method and results can be used to guide the preliminary design of actuator and flight control system for flying wing aircraft.