Minisymposium Dynamical Systems Methods in Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

The 1990s and early 2000s saw substantial research into the application of nonlinear dynamical systems theory in the field of aerospace engineering. This focussed principally on the flight mechanics behaviour of aircraft operating at extremes of their flight envelopes, where aerodynamic and other phenomena are significantly nonlinear. Useful results were obtained, and some practical tools were developed, for example, for the analysis of underslung loads below a helicopter, and the analysis of flight control law robustness. In spite of these initial efforts, methods from nonlinear dynamics have not as yet entered the industrial mainstream. On the other hand, there is today a growing realisation that, for the industry to develop and improve its products, it must face the fact that many of its problems are indeed nonlinear in nature. Hence, the necessary advances require that this type of behaviour is properly accounted for.