Reusable Launch Vehicle lateral control design on suborbital reentry

This paper presents the lateral/directional stability and control analysis and the control design results for the Reusable Launch Vehicle on suborbital reentry. The relative location of the open-loop quadratic poles and zeros is discussed. The feedback of roll rate to aileron is of better effectiveness to damping the Dutch roll than the feedback of yaw rate. To avoid the adverse yaw by ailerons, a yaw-to-roll concept method is developed using primarily rudder for lateral-directional control. The simulation shows that the rudder control roll method is practical.