Abstract: To suppress the influence of parameter uncertainty and external disturbances on the control performance of aero-engine, a multivariable sliding mode anti-disturbance control scheme was developed for turbofan engines based on a disturbance observer (DOB). Firstly, the original turbofan engine system model was normalized and augmented, based on which the DOB was designed to estimate the unknown compound disturbances. Furthermore, the multivariable sliding mode control scheme was presented based on the output of DOB, and the stability of the closed-loop system was proved through the Lyapunov approach. Finally, the simulation results and contrastive analysis verify the effectiveness of the developed control method.