Dynamics and control of maneuverable towed flight vehicles

This paper considers the problems of dynamically modeling and automatically controlling the motion of a small maneuverable flight vehicle that is being towed by a much larger one. Mathematical models of the components of the system, including the towing aircraft, tow cable reel mechanism, tow cable, and vehicle aerodynamics, are described. The development of an autopilot for stability augmentation and maneuvering of the towed vehicle is discussed. An overview of the implementation of the models in a digital computer simulation program is provided, and some typical results obtained using the program are presented. A comparison of theoretical and experimental results is also made.