Maximum Launch Range For an Air-to-Air Missile Employing Proportional Navigation for Guidance.

摘要

Optimal control theory is used to find the necessary conditions for maximizing the launch range of an air-to-air missile employing proportional navigation for guidance. Use of the first-order gradient technique provides an optimal solution for one-and two-dimensional intercept trajectories where thrust magnitude is the only control. A near-optimal,empirical method is developed and used for comparison. Results indicate that the launch range of the class of missiles considered is nearly insensitive to the thrusting schedule employed,suggesting that the low gain in launch range over present constant thrust methods may not warrant the increased complexity of an optimal design. Further,the results of the easier empirical method agree closely enough with the optimal method to suggest use of the empirical method in lieu of the gradient technique. (Author)