A proposed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with no control surfaces makes use of four electric-motor-driven propellers for both propulsion and attitude control. This UAV is capable of Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL), however the control of the propellers presents a particularly complex problem in the transition from hover to cruising flight. A novel control algorithm applies recent advances in applied optimal estimation to the development of a similarly versatile linear quadratic regulator (LQR), where a technique for generating a time-varying system model can be used to transform the control inputs that an aircraft pilot would use to the necessary control signal required for the UAV propellers. As a result, a traditionally trained aircraft pilot is able to control a novel UAV with no additional training. Further, it is anticipated that common control algorithms can later be used to control the UAV autonomously, allowing the leverage of advances in autonomous control to UAVs requiring novel control strategies.