Patent ID: 8332082

Claim:
An aircraft, comprising: a sensor carried by the aircraft, the sensor being adapted to sense a directional movement of the aircraft; an actuator carried by the aircraft, the actuator being utilized to control the directional movement of the aircraft; and a control system in data communication with the aircraft sensor and operably associated with the actuator, the control system having: a model adapted to decouple the directional movement of the aircraft into a lateral equation of motion and a longitudinal equation of motion; a lateral control architecture in data communication with the model, the lateral control architecture being adapted to utilize the lateral equation of motion to control the lateral motion of the aircraft; a longitudinal control architecture in data communication with the model, the longitudinal control architecture adapted to utilize the longitudinal equation of motion to control the longitudinal motion of the aircraft; and an initialization command logic in data communication with the lateral control architecture and in data communication with the longitudinal control architecture; wherein the initialization command logic selectively activates the lateral control architecture for controlling the lateral motion of the aircraft and selectively activates the longitudinal control architecture for controlling the longitudinal motion of the aircraft; and wherein the control system utilizes the lateral control architecture and the longitudinal control architecture to control speed variations of the aircraft while the aircraft maintains a constant vector heading across a ground surface.