Numerical Approach to Inverse Flight Dynamics

We develop a general numerical approach to inverse problems of vehicle dynamics, suitable for both fixed- and rotating-wing aircrafts. The formulation is based on an energy-preserving finite element in time for rigid body dynamics that ensures unconditional stability according to the energy method. The nonlinear inverse problem of motion is solved by assembling a suitable number of time elements over the time interval of interest and enforcing the appropriate boundary conditions. The capabilities and performance of the proposed procedure are illustrated by means of numerical examples.