TOWARDS A CONTROL-CENTRIC MODELLING AND SIMULATION-FRAMEWORK FOR HYPERSONIC GLIDE VEHICLES

Abstract

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is currently studying and developing different key technologies for the operational implementation of autonomous hypersonic flight systems into different mission scenarios. One configuration type that is of particular interest for civil and military purposes is the hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) waverider concept. Such HGVs are operating over profoundly widespread flight envelopes and are posing complex flight dynamical characteristics. To enable the development of high-performance flight control systems that can adequately and robustly handle the system dynamics of such vehicles control-centric modeling and simulation environments are required. This paper presents a generic hypersonic glide vehicle concept developed by DLR and the related control-centric simulation architecture. It includes a parameterized analysis framework that allows considering different types of relevant model uncertainties and assessing their impact on the vehicle dynamic behavior and performance. Finally, an overview of chosen flight mechanical characteristics of the generic hypersonic vehicle are presented.