A theoretical investigation of the effects of short period
angle of attack oscillation on air-to-ground weapons dive
delivery accuracy was conducted. The investigation included
the computer modeling of the longitudinal control system of
the F-4 aircraft. This longitudinal control system was used
to fly the aircraft through its standard conventional dive
bomb delivery maneuver, making corrections for various dive
angle errors, detected four thousand feet above release
altitude.
The dynamics of the F-4 aircraft motion was represented
by a matrix of dimensional, body axis longitudinal stability
derivatives and force coefficients. This matrix representation
of the aircraft dynamics was used to solve for the time
history of aircraft perturbation, velocity, angle of attack,
pitch angle, pitch rate and flight path angle, following
correction to the desired delivery maneuver flight path.
The perturbation angle of attack is a measure of the
gunsight aimpoint error at any given time, if all other delivery
parameters are met, and converts directly to weapon
impact error.
http://archive.org/details/effectsofshortpe00gaut
Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.