Pilot control through the TAFCOS automatic flight control system

The set of flight control logic used in a recently completed flight test program to evaluate the total automatic flight control system (TAFCOS) with the controller operating in a fully automatic mode, was used to perform an unmanned simulation on an IBM 360 computer in which the TAFCOS concept was extended to provide a multilevel pilot interface. A pilot TAFCOS interface for direct pilot control by use of a velocity-control-wheel-steering mode was defined as well as a means for calling up conventional autopilot modes. It is concluded that the TAFCOS structure is easily adaptable to the addition of a pilot control through a stick-wheel-throttle control similar to conventional airplane controls. Conventional autopilot modes, such as airspeed-hold, altitude-hold, heading-hold, and flight path angle-hold, can also be included

Flight tests of the total automatic flight control system (Tafcos) concept on a DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft

Flight control systems capable of handling the complex operational requirements of the STOL and VTOL aircraft designs as well as designs using active control concepts are considered. Emphasis is placed on the total automatic flight control system (TACOS) (TAFCOS). Flight test results which verified the performance of the system concept are presented