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To apply and simulate under different conditions, the combined model reference adaptive control (CMRAC) technique to control the pitch angle in a subsonic plane. Comparisons with the classical PID controller and the adaptive direct MRAC are also performed.

The methodology used in this work is the CMRAC. This is a relatively new adaptive control technique which combines the information coming from the identification procedure as well as that from the direct control scheme, and use it in the adaptive laws. The identification parameters and the controller parameters are simultaneously adjusted using the identification error, the control error and the so‐called close‐loop identification error. This combination has shown to improve the transient behavior of the adaptive systems.

This control scheme has been tested by simulation on a model of a CESSNA 182 plane, to control the pitch angle (longitudinal movement). The results have been compared with other control approaches such as the classical PID and the adaptive direct MRAC. Although the PID control satisfies all the control specifications as much as the CMRAC, it is not able to adapt when changes in the operating conditions occur, as in the case of the CMRAC. The direct MRAC does no perform well in this study.

The implementation at practical level remains to be studied and analyzed, to verify the theoretical and simulation results presented here.

The main advantage of the proposed method is that it behaves well even under different operating conditions, which is one of the most important characteristics for an implementation at practical level.

It is the first time in the control literature that the CMRAC is applied to control the pitch angle of a plane in a longitudinal movement. The results are quite promising remaining the practical implementation to verify the performance of the proposed scheme under real conditions.