Patent ID: 8141824

Claim:
A method for piloting an aircraft about a piloting axis, said aircraft comprising a plurality of N controllable aerodynamic surfaces that produce a movement of the aircraft about said piloting axis, the method comprising the steps of: a) producing an overall piloting command relating to said piloting axis; b) determining individual control commands based on the overall piloting command; c) converting each individual control command to an individual piloting command; and d) actuating, according to the individual piloting command, at least one of said N controllable aerodynamic surfaces to pilot the aircraft about said piloting axis, wherein each individual control command is determined by multiplying said overall piloting command by at least one gain Ki which is positive or negative, with i being an integer of from 1 to N, N being an integer greater than 1, with the sum of all gains represented by: ∑ i ⁢  Ki  = N ; wherein the sum of all gains reduces excitation of N-1 flexible modes of the aircraft, with the N-1 flexible modes representing a current value function of parameters related to the aircraft, and with said N individual piloting commands being obtained by solving a linear system of N-1 equations with N unknowns, and wherein the individual piloting commands are converted to the individual control commands on the basis of positive gains Ki.