This thesis presents an adaptive model reference controller for a highly
maneuverable high performance aircraft, in particular, a modified F18. An adaptive
controller is developed to maneuver an aircraft at a high angle of attack. Thus, the
aircraft is required to fly over a highly nonlinear flight regime. The adaptive controller
presented in this thesis can be viewed as a combination of a linear and a nonlinear
controller. Around a fixed flight condition the adaptive controller converges to a linear
controller; however, the controller remains a nonlinear controller during maneuvers.
The contributions of this thesis lie in two areas. The first area is in control.
A successful application of linear adaptive control is presented for a highly nonlinear
system. A new method is used to generate the reference trajectory. The reference
model uses output feedback to improve the reference trajectory. It is shown that this
improvement is necessary because of the control limitations. This work is also
important to the control of highly maneuverable high performance aircraft. A
successful adaptive controller has been developed to rapidly maneuver an aircraft to
a high angle of attack. The main focus of this thesis is adaptive control
