Stability limits of spinning missiles with attitude autopilot

The quantitative description of the stability limits associated with the attitude autopilot for spinning missiles is provided. The sufficient and necessary condition of the coning motion stability of spinning missiles with attitude autopilots is analytically derived and further verified by the mathematical simulation on the nonlinear model. It is noticed that the stable region of the design parameters for the attitude autopilot shrinks so significantly due to the spinning of the missile that it is almost impossible to ensure the stability of an autopilot by means of the conventional method. Analysis results from the stability condition indicate that the spinning missile must employ servo system with faster response to lower the total delay angle. When the total delay angle is smaller than 45°, the desired attitude autopilot can be designed.