Adaptive Control (Part II) —Modeling the X-15’s Adaptive Flight Control System

How to build from scratch a Simulink model of the famous MH-96, the X-15's Adaptive Flight Control System

Figure 1. The Simulink simulation environment of the X-15’s pitch dynamics. Image by the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Welcome to the second chapter of this series about Adaptive Control.

In the previous article, we made a one-way trip to the past, more specifically to the early 60s, the era of the firsts adaptive flight control system, and the beginning of hypersonic manned flights with the North American X-15.

Adaptive Control (Part I) — Hypersonics and the MIT Rule

In this new issue, we will make the way back trip to the present.

Using nowadays technology, we will build up a simplified simulation model of the X-15’s Adaptive Flight Control System (AFCS), the MH-96.

It’s curious to think that you could even simulate the X-15’s flight dynamics in your mobile phone. Do you know what did it take to do this in the 60s?

Take a look at this photo…