Neighboring Optimal Guidance Law for Maximum Range Glide

What is it about?

As airplanes fly through the sky, the air hitting the aircraft makes it slow down or lose altitude, which is called drag. If the plane dives lower, the air hitting the aircraft is thicker and faster. However, if the plan climbs higher, the air is thinner, which requires the aircraft to expose more of its surface to the air in order to not fall. There is a special altitude where the plane experiences the lowest amount of drag. When the plane is not at the special altitude, there is another problem: in order to change altitudes the plane also generates drag. This paper gives a formula to fly the airplane to minimize drag when the plane does not start at the special drag-minimizing altitude. By minimizing drag, the plane can glide further before it hits the ground.

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