Tradeoff analysis of the factors,including external environment and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)aerodynamic attributes,which affect longitudinal carrier landing performance,is important for small UAV.First,small UAV longitudinal carrier landing system is established,as well as the nonlinear dynamics and kinematics model,and then the longitudinal flight control system using backstepping technology with minimum information about the aerodynamic is designed.To assess the landing performance,a variety of influencing factors are considered,resulting in the constraints of aerodynamic attributes of carrier UAV.The simulation results show that the severe sea condition has the greatest influence on landing dispersion,while air wake is the primary factor on impact velocity.Among the longitudinal aerodynamic parameters,the lift curve slope is the most important factor affecting the landing performance,and increasing lift curve slope can improve the landing performance significantly.A better system performance will be achieved when the lift curve slope is larger than 2per radian. Tradeoff analysis of the factors, including external environment and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aerodynamic attributes, which affect longitudinal carrier landing performance, is important for small UAV. First, small UAV longitudinal carrier landing system is established, as well as the nonlinear dynamics and kinematics model, and then the longitudinal flight control system using backstepping technology with minimum information about the aerodynamic is designed. Reviews of the landing performance, a variety of influencing factors are considered, resulting in the constraints of aerodynamic attributes of carrier UAV. The simulation results show that the severe sea condition has the greatest influence on landing dispersion, while air wake is the primary factor on impact velocity. Among the longitudinal aerodynamic parameters, the lift curve slope is the most important factor affecting the landing performance, and increasing lift curve slope can improve the landing performance significantly. A better syste m performance will be achieved when the lift curve slope is larger than 2per radian.