Two aircraft guidance algorithms from the literature, the Non-Linear Guidance Law (NLGL) and the Nonlinear Differential Geometric Path-Following Guidance Law (NDGPFG), are assessed using a 25 kg unmanned aerobatic aircraft. The paper provides experimental results of the first flight test with the NDGPF. Prior to the real world application, a simulation study is performed to mitigate the risk. For both guidance laws, tracking performance is investigated on a purely kinematic model with unlimited control bandwidth first. Both laws provide superb tracking and the NDGPFG achieves exact path-following, i. e. zero track error. In a second simulation, a high-fidelity model of the aircraft is used. This model includes parasitic dynamics and hence has a finite control bandwidth. In contrast to the results with the purely kinematic model, neither of the algorithms achieves exact path-following with the high-fidelity model. Nevertheless, both guidance laws provide good tracking performance and prove feasible in varying environmental conditions. This observation is finally confirmed in the flight test experiment.
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