This paper presents the flight dynamical behavior of the thrust vectoring aircraft with extended bifurcation and continuation methods. In contrast to the standard bifurcation and continuation methods, the extended methods are capable of calculating the continuation curves of the equilibrium points for the particular type of trimming flight. Therefore, these methods can not only give the performance measures of aircraft, but also determine the stability of trimming points. In this paper, the methods are used to verify the effectiveness of the thrust vectoring control law, to define the flight envelope boundary, to analyze the stability and controllability of trimming flight, and to predict the departures of the instable flight. The result shows that the extended methods provide more flight dynamic information and are useful in preliminary design of the thrust vectoring aircraft.
