Description: Multi-disciplinary optimization has emerged as a key technology required to make increasingly more sophisticated electric and hybrid-electric aircraft that require advanced CONOPS such as urban air mobility and cargo delivery. Current MDO design results may take into account many disciplines in the design resulting in an optimized aircraft, only to discover controller limitations post-aircraft configuration lock related, resulting in less efficient, less capable and ultimately less safe aircraft. After decades of designing and flying flight controllers for new and existing types of hybrid and distributed propulsion aircraft, our goal is to get add a controllability component to aircraft multidisciplinary design optimization. Our controllability assessment tools can be used individually or together in an MDO/MDA framework to ensure the airplane is optimized for both aircraft performance and flight control control requirements. We leverage open-source software from OpenMDAO and can import models form OpenVSP and other sources. New UAM and UAS configurations provided significant advantages and are being pursued by the aerospace industry. Our software allows us to partner with aircraft makers to help develop their aircraft and then provide flight control solutions as a secondary output from our controllability assessment tools. Far too often, weve seen the aircraft OML locked and much later discovered aircraft flight envelope and CONOPS restrictions due to inability to control the aircraft. By co-designing the aircraft and the flight controller, we optimize both simultaneously, resulting in a design that closes for performance, CONOPS, failure conditions, and controllability within a significantly reduced timeline.

Benefits: RVLT concepts or slight modifications to the current concepts will allow RVLT to provide NASA with additional key critical technical areas to focus on in the future. New concepts can be quickly iterated and evaluated. AAM can use the controllability tools to understand what closed-loop performance is achievable to be able to form new CONOPS and infrastructure plans. ARMD can use the controllability assessment tools to optimizing the use of motors, rotors and propulsion system powertrain with respect to controller use and limitations.