Abstract: Total energy control is a new concept for the integrated flight / propulsion control of aircraft. Based on controlling the amount of aircraft total energy and its distribution, it decouples the vertical flight path and speed control, and further establishes a unified flight control system. This paper studies this control technique with the decoupling control principle of multi-variable system. First, the basic concept and principle of total energy control system (TECS) is analyzed, and the aircraft point-mass energy movement model is established based on its inner longitudinal attitude control loop and engine thrust control loop. Then, with output feedback control and fore-feed V-canonical decoupling structure, the TECS is analyzed, the control law which can decouple the vertical flight path and speed control of aircraft is designed, and the system design criteria are determined. Finally, a typical TECS is designed for a Boeing- 707 transport aircraft model, and satisfactory simulation results are obtained.

Key words: flight control, integrated control of aircrafts, multi-variable decoupling control integrated flight/propulsion control