Model Reference Adaptive Control for Vertical Gust Mitigation in Commercial Aircraft Longitudinal Dynamics

Model Reference Adaptive Control for Vertical Gust Mitigation in Commercial Aircraft Longitudinal Dynamics | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Model Reference Adaptive Control for Vertical Gust Mitigation in Commercial Aircraft Longitudinal Dynamics Mohamed Mohamed, Ermira Abdullah, Amzari Zhahir This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8464285/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Vertical wind gusts present significant challenges to commercial aircraft stability, where sudden disturbances can jeopardize passenger safety and control precision. Conventional fixed-gain controllers often struggle to maintain optimal performance under these unpredictable conditions. This study evaluates the potential of Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) to stabilize the aircraft's longitudinal dynamics and enhance passenger comfort during vertical gust encounters. The Airbus A320 aircraft model has been selected as the reference model for this study because it stands as the world's most widely used single-aisle commercial jet and represents a critical baseline for modern fly-by-wire systems facing these aerodynamic challenges. A four-state longitudinal dynamic model of the A320 was developed and rigorously verified against high-fidelity data from the X-Plane 11 flight simulator. A Lyapunov-based MRAC system was designed to track a stable reference model and simulated in MATLAB under discrete 1-cosine gust profiles ranging from light ( \((5 \text{ m/s})\) ) to severe ( \((15 \text{ m/s})\) ) intensities. A key result of this research is the finding that lower adaptive rates yield superior stability under high-intensity gust conditions. Contrary to the common intuition that faster adaptation is preferable for rapid disturbances, this study reveals that high adaptive rates induce instability during severe turbulence, whereas lower rates successfully stabilize the aircraft by mitigating excessive controller aggressiveness. The results demonstrate that the MRAC system consistently outperforms the open-loop configuration, significantly reducing pitch oscillations and settling times across all gust scenarios. Model reference adaptive control Vertical Gust Mitigation Flight dynamics Adaptive control Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8464285","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":582954639,"identity":"899f1863-3827-49f2-8e02-1453546cde6b","order_by":0,"name":"Mohamed Mohamed","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABFUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFAC5oMPEnhq5EBMCYQoGz4tbMkGH2SOGYMUAbUYEKOFR01yhg1zYgPRWuT9z7BJ8+Swpc+f32N44+OOPwwGt7sTGD6UHWbQnZGAVYvhjdzD1jxnZHI3HOMxtpx5xoDB4M7ZDYwzzh1mMLuBQ8sMvsTbvD1suRvYeMykeduAWm7kbmDmbcOjpf+MgTTvP+Z0+Taglr8wLX/xaJFnyDGSnMHDnMBwDKiFEaaFEY8WA4k0YCDzHDPccCyt2LK3zZhHEuiXgz3n0nnMzjzAbkv/YXBUyss3H95442ebnBzf7d6ND36UWcuZHcdhywE0AR5Q7BwAMwRw+KUBQwiebPjRjRsFo2AUjIIRCgD4sWGPudTO3gAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohamed","middleName":"","lastName":"Mohamed","suffix":""},{"id":582954640,"identity":"56d7f1d5-cc8d-41bc-82cc-3273f542720a","order_by":1,"name":"Ermira Abdullah","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ermira","middleName":"","lastName":"Abdullah","suffix":""},{"id":582954641,"identity":"81400126-3b5d-4772-9698-a760388ed7f0","order_by":2,"name":"Amzari Zhahir","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Amzari","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhahir","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-12-28 06:53:14","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8464285/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8464285/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":101646736,"identity":"c10b6fd6-885e-4070-b915-6b11909a78b0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-02 08:43:01","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1687121,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ModelReferenceAdaptiveControlforVerticalGustMitigationinCommercialAircraftLongitudinalDynamics.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8464285/v1_covered_8fb0242b-a6bc-4f3b-b664-08f6c4c1850e.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Model Reference Adaptive Control for Vertical Gust Mitigation in Commercial Aircraft Longitudinal Dynamics","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Model reference adaptive control, Vertical Gust Mitigation, Flight dynamics, Adaptive control","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8464285/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8464285/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eVertical wind gusts present significant challenges to commercial aircraft stability, where sudden disturbances can jeopardize passenger safety and control precision. Conventional fixed-gain controllers often struggle to maintain optimal performance under these unpredictable conditions. This study evaluates the potential of Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) to stabilize the aircraft's longitudinal dynamics and enhance passenger comfort during vertical gust encounters. The Airbus A320 aircraft model has been selected as the reference model for this study because it stands as the world's most widely used single-aisle commercial jet and represents a critical baseline for modern fly-by-wire systems facing these aerodynamic challenges. A four-state longitudinal dynamic model of the A320 was developed and rigorously verified against high-fidelity data from the X-Plane 11 flight simulator. A Lyapunov-based MRAC system was designed to track a stable reference model and simulated in MATLAB under discrete 1-cosine gust profiles ranging from light (\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\((5 \\text{ m/s})\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e) to severe (\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\((15 \\text{ m/s})\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e) intensities. A key result of this research is the finding that lower adaptive rates yield superior stability under high-intensity gust conditions. Contrary to the common intuition that faster adaptation is preferable for rapid disturbances, this study reveals that high adaptive rates induce instability during severe turbulence, whereas lower rates successfully stabilize the aircraft by mitigating excessive controller aggressiveness. The results demonstrate that the MRAC system consistently outperforms the open-loop configuration, significantly reducing pitch oscillations and settling times across all gust scenarios.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Model Reference Adaptive Control for Vertical Gust Mitigation in Commercial Aircraft Longitudinal Dynamics","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-02 08:41:35","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8464285/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"b1e4a3fc-abcd-402e-97ad-673e8e455a77","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 2nd, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-02T08:41:35+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-02 08:41:35","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8464285","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8464285","identity":"rs-8464285","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}