Dear Colleagues,

In the ever-evolving field of aerospace engineering, the development and advancement of flight control systems play a pivotal role in enhancing the safety, efficiency, and performance of fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. For these reasons, these systems continue to be an active, dynamic field of research. For this purpose, dynamic simulation represents an effective and valuable tool, indispensable across all phases of flight control systems’ life: from the development phase, where simulations are used to evaluate design feasibility, to the development phase, in which dynamic simulations are used to evaluate the expected performances and assess safety-critical aspects of flight control systems. More recently, the use of dedicated simulation platforms has also been proposed during the operational life of flight control systems through the concept of digital twins, offering real-time insights and enabling effective decision-making and adjustments. Dynamic models offer a cost-effective and fast approach for the investigation of flight control actuators in non-nominal conditions and in the presence of different kinds of faults or degradations, simplifying the creation of large amounts of data that are usually missing in the aerospace sector, paving the way for the development and application of prognostic and health management techniques.

This Special Issue is thus focused on advancements and innovations in flight control systems for aerospace applications, with a particular focus on their modeling/simulation, aimed at, but not limited to, their architectural definition, reliability/safety analysis, control, condition-monitoring, experimental testing and real-time applications.

We encourage the submission of research papers on the above topics, especially but not limited to those including both theoretical and experimental aspects, providing innovative content that can foster further progress in the field.

• Dynamic modeling of aerospace actuators
• Electromechanical actuators
• Electro-hydraulic actuators
• Electro-hydrostatic actuators
• Geared rotary actuators
• Flight control system Digital Twin for PHM
• Simulation, virtual prototyping, virtual test-benches
• Flight control system component modeling
• Multiphysics, multidomain and multiscale simulation
• Model-based design and optimization

We believe the topic of this Special Issue perfectly fits the scope of the journal Actuators as it is centered on the dynamic simulation of flight control systems for aerospace applications. Flight control systems consist of linear or rotary actuators based on electromechanical, electrohydraulic, or hybrid technologies.

Dr. Antonio Carlo Bertolino
Dr. Andrea De Martin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• flight controls
• dynamic simulation
• aerospace actuators
• flight control system digital twin for PHM
• simulation, virtual prototyping, virtual test-benches
• multiphysics, multidomain and multiscale simulation
• model-based design and optimization

Title: Design and implementation of a hardware-in-the-loop air load system for testing aerospace actuators
Authors: Alessandro Dell'Amico
Affiliation: Saab AB and Linköping University
Abstract: This paper outlines the design and implementation of an air load system for testing aerospace actuators. The hardware-in-the-loop simulation plays an important role in the design and evaluation of actuators, as well as development of models. The air load system serves the role of applying realistic forces during flight mission simulation in a full-scale Iron Bird using a servo hydraulic system. This is a research platform for developing and evaluating energy management systems and control strategies where both hydraulic and electric actuators are an integral part of. The paper deals with definition of requirements, system and control design, and integration in the Iron Bird. Several design aspects and control techniques are tested and implemented to improve the performance, which is finally verified in the rig.