Abstract: Because of special flight environment and high speed, gliding high-speed vehicle model is strong coupling, highly nonlinear and fast time-varying. To solve the control problem, the gliding high-speed vehicle model was linearized firstly. Then a sliding mode controller was designed by sliding mode variable structure theory. Finally, the adaptive sliding mode controller of gliding high-speed vehicle was designed by combining sliding mode controller with on-line parameter estimator. The simulation results show that this controller can satisfy the dynamic performance index of gliding high-speed vehicle and it has strong adaptability and robustness.