Halsmer, D. M., & Spiess, S., & Willis, G. N., & VanDusen, M. R. (2021, July), Development of a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator to Assist in the Education of Aircraft Design Engineers  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36964

\bibitem{asee_peer_36964}
  Halsmer, D. M., \& Spiess, S., \& Willis, G. N., \& VanDusen, M. R. (2021, July), \emph{Development of a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator to Assist in the Education of Aircraft Design Engineers}
  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference.
  10.18260/1-2--36964

Dominic M. Halsmer P.E., Simeon Spiess, Geoffrey N.A. Willis, and Michael R. VanDusen.  "Development of a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator to Assist in the Education of Aircraft Design Engineers".  2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July.  ASEE Conferences, 2021.  https://peer.asee.org/36964 Internet.  21 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_36964}
  Dominic M. Halsmer P.E., Simeon Spiess, Geoffrey N.A. Willis, and Michael R. VanDusen.
  "Development of a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator to Assist in the Education of Aircraft Design Engineers".
  \emph{2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2021.
  https://peer.asee.org/36964 Internet.  21 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_36964
author = "Dominic M. Halsmer P.E., Simeon Spiess, Geoffrey N.A. Willis, and Michael R. VanDusen"
title = "Development of a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator to Assist in the Education of Aircraft Design Engineers"
booktitle = "2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access"
year = "2021"
month = "July"
address = "Virtual Conference"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/36964}
number = {10.18260/1-2--36964}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The ongoing development of a Stewart platform-based flight simulator that incorporates virtual reality has provided ample opportunities for exciting project-based learning for undergraduate engineering students at XXX University. Multiple capstone design project teams have contributed to the research and development effort and benefitted from the multi-disciplinary systems engineering environment. The current senior project team consists of four students from the mechanical, electrical and computer engineering concentrations working to provide design improvements/refinements, as well as the development and execution of a testing and validation plan for all aspects of the system.
The Stewart platform provides full six-degree-of-freedom motion to the suspended pilot seat through revolute joints in response to pilot inputs via a control yoke or joystick. The pilot senses this simulated aircraft motion while enjoying a realistic virtual reality flight experience via a VIVE headset that provides coordinated scenery outside the windows of the simulated cockpit. Various aircraft options are possible, including uniquely designed custom aircraft via the PlaneMaker feature of the Xplanes flight simulation software. This will allow engineering students in the Aircraft Design course to create original aircraft designs, input the necessary parameters into PlaneMaker, and virtually test-pilot their own custom aircraft in order to assess flight performance and characteristics. This experience then forms the basis for engineering design modifications in an effort to improve performance and further refine the fledgling aircraft design.
Providing students with such timely and exciting feedback on their own original aircraft designs is anticipated to be highly motivating to the engineering students. In addition, the simulator will be housed in the Virtual Reality Center at the university so that local K-12 students can experience the wonder of flight, as well as some of the engineering aspects of aircraft design. Thus, the simulator and its interfaces must be engineered to be simple enough for a non-expert to operate. It is believed that this experience will help to motivate more K-12 students in the pursuit of an engineering career.
Although nearly complete, there are a few aspects of the system that need further engineering analysis and development. Finite element analysis will be applied to the mechanical linkages, and necessary changes made, in order to firmly establish appropriate factors of safety for all mechanical elements. The development of a more realistic control yoke to receive pilot inputs is also being researched and considered. In addition, the computer interfaces for proper signal communications requires additional work. But the primary focus of this final phase is the development and execution of a test and validation plan to ensure that the system is providing a reasonably accurate simulation of the actual flight experience. This will require subsystem testing as well as integrated systems testing to faithfully reproduce vehicular dynamics for a variety of aircraft types.

AU  - Dominic M. Halsmer P.E.
AU  - Simeon Spiess
AU  - Geoffrey N.A. Willis
AU  - Michael R. VanDusen
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Development of a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator to Assist in the Education of Aircraft Design Engineers
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/36964
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--36964
ER  -