i am designing an aircraft with no vertical stabilizer...i will use thrust differential on two wing mounted engines to provide yawing motion. However, i am concerned about a single engine failure which may cause the aircraft to yaw and spin out of control. In this case, how else, if possible, can the aircraft be controlled?
differential deflection of spoiler like structure mounted near wing tip can help in this case, but roll issue can be faced along with accompanied loss of lift in this process.
The most relevant answer to that would be an asymmetric engine power. Using thrust on only one of the engine could guide the aircraft to the other direction, (Yawing). But would be applicable only if under emergency conditions and would not be a very recommended option. The other would be retractable winglets which could help in the aircraft stability control. (Not a researched method). Rudders are very important and have to be installed if not then it has to be flapping wing type which could be a ornithopter.
The method employed by modern aircraft with no "vertical stabilizers" is to use asymmetrical 'speed brakes' in the ailerons/elevons. The horizontal control surface in the wing is split, so that drag can be applied to produce the yawing force. There is no doubt that if you aren't going to use a passive major-axis stabilizer (a tail fin), then you need a sophisticated model predictive controller that can sparsify control responses to not result in instability, given the numerous modes of rotation/oscillation presented in a vehicle without passive stability. Also, you don't need asymmetrical engines to produce a thrust differential, you merely need a single (or double sharing a thrust axis) engine with a steerable nozzle. You don't need anything fancy mechanically, just a really good controller.
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