Airspeed control of electric airplane based on 2-quadrant thrust control and verification with towing test using electric vehicle

Electrical airplanes (EAs) have become practical in the recent years. Considering the increase of demand on smaller aircraft and the attention to environmental issues, the demand on small EAs is expected to grow in the coming decade. However, the accident rate of small aircrafts is higher than that of larger aircrafts, so ensuring higher safety of EA is very urgent. Modeling and thrust control of EAs have been proposed previously by the authors' research group. However, this model and control method is not suitable when the propeller revolution speed is near and below zero. In this paper, the improved thrust control method based on new EA propeller plant is proposed. This method is necessary for design of airspeed control method, which can be expected to improve the safety of EA. A towing test method which allows plane's dynamical experiment on ground is also proposed. Real flight experiment was the only conventional method test a plane's dynamics. However, the test piece needs to be a complete airplane to conduct a real flight. Moreover, it is impossible to observe the response a particular input without interferes from other factors. The proposed method allows component technology to be tested in dynamical situations. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is verified through simulations and experiments.