Nonlinear dynamics of a vectored thrust aircraft

With realistic relations for the aerodynamic coefficients, numerical simulations are applied to study the longitudional dynamics of a thrust vectored aircraft. As function of the thrust magnitude and the thrust vectoring angle the equilibrium state exhibits two saddle-node bifurcations and three Hopf bifurcations. Even when the equilibrium state is stable, weakly damped oscillations occur with a period of 1 min. If, in an attempt to compensate for these oscillations, the thrust deflection is periodically adjusted, a complicated structure of overlapping torus, saddle-node and period-doubling bifurcations arises. This structure is investigated by combining brute force bifurcation diagrams with one- and two-dimensional continuation analyses.