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The thesis applies the Model Based Predictive Control (MBPC) technique, a relatively well known technique in the process industry, within the aerospace environment. Such an approach was taken because of some appealing attributes of MBPC such as simplicity, richness and practicality. Moreover, the built in constrained optimisation gives to the flight control architecture more power in terms of monitoring actuator states or flight envelopes.
 
After an introduction, the second chapter contains a comprehensive overview of the methodology in an unified manner, covering the state space and the input-output formulations of model based predictive control.
 
The third chapter deals with theoretical issues, such as stability feasibility and robustness, taking the reader into both unconstrained and constrained problem formulations.
 
The fourth chapter addresses some implementation issues of predictive controllers. The problems addressed range from tuning procedures and guidelines to a CAD development space used to tune and implement MBPC controllers.
 
The fifth chapter contains a novel application of MBPC (as a Stability Augmentation System - SAS) to a Research Civil Aircraft Model (RCAM) under the auspices of the Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe (GARTEUR).
 
The next chapter, the sixth one, presents a well motivated application of the MBPC technique to Flight Management (FM) in a combined framework with an H-inf controller used for the Guidance and Stability Augmentation System (GS+SAS). Conclusions of this project are published in a Springer-Verlag book from Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences series.
 
The seventh chapter describes advances towards reconfiguration and scheduling in flight control systems using high fidelity models expressed in a quasi-LPV form, Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI), model approximation/simplification and constrained Model Based Predictive Control (MBPC). The strategy is applied to a well known missile example. This represents a new Reconfigurable Flight Control System (RFCS). The last part of this chapter explores the method developed by employing it to a High Angle of Attack Research Model (HIRM) obtained by the courtesy of the Defence and Evaluation Research Agency (DERA) -- Ministry of Defence (MoD), U.K.