In the autumn of 1902 the Wright brothers spent just over eight weeks at their test site in the Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, testing their third Glider design. During the trial period they implemented an inter-linked roll-yaw control system. Together with the forward canard surface, this gave them control over vertical and horizontal components of the flight path. They were also able to hone and perfect their piloting skills. In just two days in the final week, they made about 250 glides. The success of the trials instilled the confidence in the Wright brothers to proceed rapidly to the construction of a powered aircraft. Within a month of returning to Dayton, they were writing to engine manufacturers with their specification – an engine that would develop eight to nine brake horse power, weigh no more than 180lb and be free from vibration; they would not find a suitable powerplant and had to design and build their own. The invention of the powered aeroplane in 1903 somewhat overshadows the earlier critical flight control developments, but the birth of flight control in 1902 opened the way for aviation to flourish. With the aid of modern flight science techniques – wind-tunnel testing, computational flight dynamics and piloted simulation, this paper examines the technology of the Wrights' 1902 glider. The research forms a part of the Liverpool Wright Project, aiming to bring to life the Wright brothers' achievements in this centenary period. Wilbur and Orville Wright are recognised by many as the first aeronautical engineers and test pilots. In so many ways they set standards that today's engineers and organisations benefit from. Their work in the period 1901 to 1902 reflects their genius and the paper reviews this work in detail, examining the design, aerodynamic characteristics and flying qualities of the aircraft that first featured a practical three-axis control system.

Transverse sonic injection, usually in a staged manner, in a confined environment is a necessity in the design of an efficient combustion chamber. The design requires an analysis of the mixing of the injectant with incoming stream as efficient combustion depends upon good mixing. This kind of analysis needs numerical model/simulation to assess the mixing of the two streams. To determine the suitability of an existing software package for such a study, staged transverse sonic injection into a Mach 2 stream in a confined environment is taken as a test case. The experimental conditions of McDaniel et al are reproduced for this simulation. In this experiment, staged transverse injection of sonic jet behind the backward facing step in Mach 2 stream was carried out and profiles of various flow parameters were measured. The numerical simulation solves the 3D Navier-Stokes equations with a k – ε turbulence model using the PARallel Aerodynamic Simulator PARAS3D. Computed results show a good match for injectant penetration profile although the computations predict slightly higher penetration near the orifice location. Detailed comparison of flow parameter profiles between computed and experimental data reveal that in the zone away from the injection orifice, computations predict the flow field reasonable well. However, in the vicinity of the orifice, there are some differences between experimental data and computed results. These differences could be due to non-uniform inlet profile in the experiment and/or inadequacy of the turbulence model considered in the study.

The evaluation of rotorcraft performance and handling qualities in piloted flight using a desk-top simulation is a desirable facility. The development of the SYCOS pilot model has brought this capability closer by simulating piloted flight along prescribed trajectories such as the Mission Task Elements of ADS-33. This development has overcome some of the limitations of the precise control of inverse simulation, by adopting a structure which includes a corrective component that adjusts the control strategy to counteract departures from the desired flight path. The development and implementation of SYCOS for a range of rotorcraft types and applications is shown to be well defined and straightforward. The capability and reliability of SYCOS is demonstrated through a number of recent applications in performance, control strategy and pilot workload studies. Some of the applications benefit from enhancements to the basic structure and these are described in context. The accumulation of experience with the SYCOS pilot indicates that it is a significant advance as a predictor of human control activity during helicopter manoeuvring flight.

The dye-injection flow visualisation technique was used to investigate the effect of the apex flap on the leading-edge vortex breakdown over a cropped 76°/40° double delta wing. The angle-of-attack of the experimental model varied from 20° to 40°, and the length of the apex flap was 25%c and 50%c respectively. By changing the angle of the apex flap, we found that the apex flap is an efficient method to control the leading-edge vortex breakdown, and that there exists an angle of the apex flap at which the value of the leading-edge vortex breakdown delay reaches maximum. Moreover, it is found that, for α < 28°, the small apex flap is a better choice for delaying the vortex breakdown; for α > 28°, the large apex flap is superior to the small one.

This paper describes the research into the flight dynamics modelling and flight control of a flapping wing micro aerial vehicle (MAV). The equations of motion based on a multi-body representation of the vehicle and the flapping wings were derived and form the basis for the simulation program, which was developed using MATLAB and SIMULINK. The aerodynamic forces were obtained through experimental methods and form the basis for the aerodynamic model.

The hovering and low speed flight of the MAV was investigated using a SIMULINK simulation model. Various flight control concepts, inspired by observation of insect and bird flight, were investigated in some detail. The concepts include the control of flap frequency, flap and pitch phasing (wing beat kinematics) and shift in centre of gravity position. The paper concludes with a comparison of the control concepts and their feasibility for a practical vehicle application.