**1. Introduction**

Optimal control for a maneuverable aircraft is a sophisticated problem, since the control object belongs to a class of multidimensional nonlinear dynamic systems [1]. A common approach to control involves variation methods that require the solution of a two-point boundary value problem [2]. Recently, interest has arisen in direct methods for the formation of optimal control [3,4] due to their scalability, robustness and relative simplicity of implementation.

Direct methods assume that a finite set of parameters could determine the desired control signal on the required time interval with necessary precision. As a result, they reduce the initial problem of finding the optimal control to the unconditional parametric optimization problem.

However, depending on the type of control signal, the number of parameters may be quite large. This requires an approach other than widespread gradient methods. One of the possible solutions to this problem appears to be evolutionary or population-based optimization algorithms known in a variety of applications.

In this paper, we propose using a modification of the direct method developed by the authors [4] for the purpose of optimization of the typical aircraft movement in the longitudinal channel. This method is based on spline approximation of control signals and particle swarm optimization [5,6] (PSO) of the resulting problem.
