Abstract—This paper describes the Samarai – a rotating
mono-wing nano air vehicle (NAV) designed at Lockheed
Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories. Challenges
uniquely associated with developing this type of vehicle are
identified and a dynamic modeling and control synthesis
procedure is described for tackling them. It is shown that, by
modeling the rotating wing as a lower-complexity spinning
disk, and using the disk states for feedback control, a very
simple control design results. This approach is validated in
simulation of flight maneuvers that include vertical, hovering
and translational motion segments