Abstract <p>This article proposes an adaptive incremental nonlinear fault-tolerant control scheme for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), in the presence of complex input nonlinearities and actuator faults. Distinct from single input nonlinearity models, an actuator fault model incorporating dead-zone and backlash is established in this article. Subsequently, based on a sliding mode differentiator, the adaptive incremental backstepping control scheme is derived to achieve low model knowledge dependence and fast attitude response. This scheme integrates Nussbaum function with Chebyshev neural network to construct a novel composite adaptive framework, in which a hybrid state estimator is designed. By introducing the state estimation error into the adaptive laws, the compensation accuracy for various adverse effects, including input nonlinearities and faults, is improved to achieve precise attitude tracking performance. The closed-loop attitude dynamics are proven to be finite-time stable using Lyapunov theory. Finally, comparative simulations are presented to verify the enhanced accuracy, rapid convergence, and significant fault tolerance of our proposed control scheme.</p> Graphical Abstract) <p></p>