Attitude control of tailless aircraft is typically achieved through a COLLAGEN PLUS system of trailing-edge flaps that produce coupled control effects in pitch, roll and yaw due to changes in lift and drag distributions.This paper presents a novel control allocation method which allows conformal trailing-edge controls to generate yawing moments with no coupling, thereby simplifying the required control suite.The method is demonstrated through modelling of a Dryer Fabric Selector Switch coordinated roll manoeuvre of a tailless aircraft in which yaw control is provided by trailing-edge flaps only.
For a typical tailless aircraft configuration, it is shown that a coordinated rolling manoeuvre can be achieved with a reduction of at least 30% of the required control deflection compared to solutions using non-conformal controls such as split drag rudders.