Title: Aircraft trajectory optimization using nonlinear programming

Authors: Tuomas Raivio, H. Ehtamo and R.P. Hämäläinen

Status: Proc. of the 17th IFIP TC7 Conference on System Modelling and Optimization, July 10-14, 1995, Prague, Czech Republic, (J. Dolezal and Jiri Fidler, eds.) Chapman & Hall, 1996, pp. 435-441.

We describe two discretization methods, direct collocation and a scheme based on differential inclusion, that enable the solution of optimal control problems by nonlinear programming. We apply the methods in calculating optimal trajectories for a modern fighter aircraft. Unlike collocation, the differential inclusion scheme converges robustly even in the presence of singular controls.