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<p>Traditional aircraft rely on a combination of ailerons, elevators, rudders, and propulsion for flight control. However, a failure in the rudder can significantly compromise lateral-directional control and even be catastrophic, depending on flight phase and the aircraft dynamics. Recent advancements in hybrid-electric propulsion technologies offer new opportunities for using differential thrust to enhance aircraft safety. This paper presents four novel contributions to hybrid-electric aircraft control: (1) a modified Daisy Chaining control allocation that eliminates fault detection modules by using actuator position feedback for seamless transition; (2) a systematic MIMO PID controller design methodology specifically optimized for hybrid-electric differential thrust with Target-Zeros tuning that allows the reuse of the same controller for rudder actuation (reducing complexity by having less components and using less memory for the gains); (3) comprehensive analysis of electric motor dynamics requirements for aircraft with different Dutch-Roll characteristics; and (4) design guidance and insights for implementation of the proposed solution in a practical application, to address the real-world challenges mapped in this work. We applied this control law to two aircraft models: a wide-body jet airliner and a multi-role fighter, both equipped with hybrid-electric propulsion systems. The control system was optimized using advanced tuning techniques and incorporated an over-actuation strategy through a Daisy Chaining architecture. Our results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy achieves yaw control performance comparable to traditional systems while effectively mitigating the impacts of rudder failures, which means it is suitable as a safety mechanism able to stabilize the aircraft during an emergency until safe landing, that would otherwise be catastrophic without this system. However, the scalability of this approach is limited, as maintaining performance at higher yaw angles requires increased propulsion sizing. These findings highlight the need for further research to assess the feasibility of using differential thrust as a primary control mechanism—and not just a fallback control strategy—in aircraft equipped with hybrid-electric and distributed electric propulsion.</p>

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Hybrid-electric aircraft directional recovery from rudder failure through differential thrust daisy chaining

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月4日

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  • Gabriel N. P. Silva,
  • Flavio L. Cardoso-Ribeiro,
  • Marco A. O. Alves Jr.

摘要

Traditional aircraft rely on a combination of ailerons, elevators, rudders, and propulsion for flight control. However, a failure in the rudder can significantly compromise lateral-directional control and even be catastrophic, depending on flight phase and the aircraft dynamics. Recent advancements in hybrid-electric propulsion technologies offer new opportunities for using differential thrust to enhance aircraft safety. This paper presents four novel contributions to hybrid-electric aircraft control: (1) a modified Daisy Chaining control allocation that eliminates fault detection modules by using actuator position feedback for seamless transition; (2) a systematic MIMO PID controller design methodology specifically optimized for hybrid-electric differential thrust with Target-Zeros tuning that allows the reuse of the same controller for rudder actuation (reducing complexity by having less components and using less memory for the gains); (3) comprehensive analysis of electric motor dynamics requirements for aircraft with different Dutch-Roll characteristics; and (4) design guidance and insights for implementation of the proposed solution in a practical application, to address the real-world challenges mapped in this work. We applied this control law to two aircraft models: a wide-body jet airliner and a multi-role fighter, both equipped with hybrid-electric propulsion systems. The control system was optimized using advanced tuning techniques and incorporated an over-actuation strategy through a Daisy Chaining architecture. Our results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy achieves yaw control performance comparable to traditional systems while effectively mitigating the impacts of rudder failures, which means it is suitable as a safety mechanism able to stabilize the aircraft during an emergency until safe landing, that would otherwise be catastrophic without this system. However, the scalability of this approach is limited, as maintaining performance at higher yaw angles requires increased propulsion sizing. These findings highlight the need for further research to assess the feasibility of using differential thrust as a primary control mechanism—and not just a fallback control strategy—in aircraft equipped with hybrid-electric and distributed electric propulsion.