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Exposing Aerospace Engineering Students to Flight Simulation Software, Hardware and Systems Integration Abstract

Aerospace Engineering students are exposed to software and hardware in the Flight Simulation course at Parks College to familiarize them with an Aero Engineer’s view of the world of real- time, pilot-in-the-loop flight simulation, impart some skills that could be useful to them should they go into this industry and reinforce their knowledge of flight dynamics. This course has spawned an interesting student project which is the main focus of this paper – the development of a PC-based mobile flight simulator.

Introduction

With respect to the Flight Simulation course at Parks, this paper reports

1) the use of student written programs which introduce them to the basics of flight simulation equations of motion and numerical integration.

2) the use of Parks’ Engineering Flight Simulator (EFS)

3) the upgrading of the Parks’ Engineering Flight Simulator Visual Image Generator with Flight Gear™.

4) the construction and systems integration effort which will produce a new, mobile, X-Plane™- based flight simulator done entirely as a student project with department funds. This section may be of interest to other schools interested in developing a low cost simulator as a project and educational tool for their students.

1 Student Written Programs

In the Flight Simulation course at Parks College, students are often required to write a program (C, C++ or Matlab M-file) which introduces them to the basics of flights simulation equations of motion and numerical integration. This program may only involve the longitudinal degrees of freedom (pitch, speed and altitude). In the program the Euler angle pitch rate is integrated to get pitch angle. But students are introduced to the quaternion method used in full flight simulators which avoids the singularity at 90 degrees of pitch. Please see Appendix A for an example of a student written program. In contrast, the flight model in the EFS is “industrial strength”.

2 Use of Engineering Flight Simulator

The Parks College Engineering Flight Simulator is used in a variety of ways a) to give AE students some “flight” experience, albeit simulated flight b) to provide a platform on which AE students may implement a new aircraft design for flight validation c) to provide a “Guinea Pig” on which AE students may do some software development

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Boyer, L., & Johnston, D., & Karmazin, W. (2006, June), Exposing Aerospace Engineering Students To Flight Simulation Software, Hardware And Systems Integration Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--1234