109

CHAPTER 5

Stability Augmentation
Systems
5.1 INTRODUCTION

The air through which an aircraft flies is dynamic, constantly in turbulent motion, and creates
gusts. Consequently, the aerodynamic forces and moments fluctuate about their equilibrium
values. These fluctuations will cause the aircraft to heave up or plunge down, to pitch its nose
up/down, to roll about the x -axis, or to yaw from side to side about the aircraft’s heading. These
flight motions cause the large transport aircraft and high-performance fighters to suffer from
low damping—particularly at low-speed and high-altitude flights. One solution is to augment
the aircraft stability by employing AFCS. Without this solution, the damping ratio and natural
frequency for open-loop dynamics of such aircraft deteriorate with altitude.
These motions result in accelerations, which are experienced by passengers and crew as
unpleasant effects. To reduce these accelerations it is necessary to cancel the gust effects by
other forces.
Modern high-performance commercial aircraft (e.g., Boeing 777 and Airbus 380) and
military fighters (e.g., Lockheed MartinF-35 Lightning II) require some form of stability aug-
mentation system. Current military fighter aircraft are actually dynamically unstable, and would
be unsafe to fly without an AFCS and some form of stability augmentation system (SAS). SAS
basically operate by sensing one or more of the aircraft motion variables, and then deflecting a
control surface to oppose the aircraft motion. In general, SASs are concerned with the stabi-
lizing/control of aircraft’s motion in one axis. Feedback (usually electrical signals) from angular
rate sensors are fed to the control surface actuators to modify the natural motion modes of the
aircraft.
Automatic control devices for improving aircraft dynamic stability have been referred
to—in the past—as stabilizers, dampers, and stability augmenters or stability augmentation
systems. High-performance commercial (e.g., large transport) and fighter aircraft are required
some form of stability augmentation system. As the name implies, a basic SAS will augment
the static/dynamic stability of an aircraft to improve the aircraft response to atmospheric gust
and disturbances. The role of SAS in large transport aircraft is mainly to increase the damping,
while in fighters is to frequently stabilize the unstable aircraft. When AFCS is in SAS mode, it
makes such aircraft appear to the pilot as normally responding aircraft.

M. Sadraey, Automatic Flight Control Systems

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
110 5. STABILITY AUGMENTATION SYSTEMS

δE Atmospheric Disturbances
δA Attitude
Zero Commanded
δR + Rate
Attitude Rate SAS Control Surface Aircraft
Controller Servo Dynamics
–

Sensor (rate gyro)

Figure 5.1: A general simplified block diagram of a stability augmentation system.

When an aircraft is unstable, or lightly damped, it is difficult for the pilot to control the
aircraft. In terms of aircraft dynamics, the response modes determine if the aircraft is control-
lable. The responsiveness of an aircraft to maneuvering commands is partially governed by the
frequency of the second order modes (e.g., short-period and Dutch roll). If frequencies of these
modes are sufficiently high, the aircraft requires an SAS which artificially provides these modes
suitable damping ratios and natural frequencies.
Short period mode of longitudinal dynamics and Dutch role of lateral-directional dynam-
ics tend to deteriorate rapidly at low speeds, and high angles of attack.
When the SAS is switched on, the control surfaces are deflected by actuators which are
controlled by the AFCS. When the SAS is switched off, the aircraft is controlled directly by the
pilot by moving the appropriate control surface(s) through the cockpit stick/pedals.
Military fighters are lightly stable, or actually unstable, so they are virtually impossible to
fly without an AFCS. To enhance the maneuverability of fighters, the longitudinal modes are
intentionally made unstable, and directional modes are made lightly stable. Modern fighters are
designed with a negative static margin in longitudinal dynamics.
Moreover, stability augmentation systems often form the inner loops of attitude control
systems; which in turn, form the inner loops for the flight path control systems.
The SAS employs sensors to measure the aircraft body-axes angular velocities, and feeds
back processed versions of these flight variables to controllers that drive the control surfaces.
An SAS controller will generate an aerodynamic moment proportional to angular rate and its
derivatives to cause a damping effect on the dynamics. Figure 5.1 demonstrates the general block
diagram of an SAS. There could be one SAS for each axis; roll damper for x axis, a pitch damper
for y axis, and a yaw damper for z axis.
Each SAS is equipped with a rate gyro to measure the relevant body-axis attitude (angular)
rate. A roll rate gyro in a roll damper, a pitch rate gyro in a pitch damper, and a yaw rate gyro
is employed in a yaw damper. If an aircraft dynamic mode (e.g., Dutch roll or short period) is
unstable, or if it is desired to change both damping ratio and natural frequency (of the mode),
additional feedback is required. When an atmospheric disturbance/gust hits the aircraft, the
SAS will help the aircraft to respond as in a more stable aircraft.