Development of flight control system for automatic landing flight experiment "ALFLEX"

In the extensive development of the H-II Orbiting Plane (HOPE), ALFLEX (Automatic Landing Flight Experiment) was carried out to develop fundamental technologies for a completely autonomous landing for Japan's first unmanned reentry vehicle. National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and several manufacturing companies worked together as a unified team and conducted various ground tests and hanging flight tests since March 1996 at Woomera Airfield in South Australia. In July, the first automatic landing test was performed successfully, and in August, entire 13 flight tests were completed with outstanding results. As well as these flight test results, this paper outlines the Flight Control System; which performed essential and important roles in ALFLEX, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.