Next Generation Flight Simulation Aerodynamic Modeling of Rotary-Wing Aircraft

Continuum Dynamics, Inc., has recently developed innovative, real-time physics-based models of rotary-wing aerodynamics for flight simulations that improve upon previously used math models. By directly modeling the physics of rotary-wing aerodynamics in real-time, these models provide high fidelity with minimal tuning and are straightforward to update for new aircraft. In fact, extensive validation has established the ability of these new methods to accurately predict many key aerodynamic metrics without any reliance on test data. The new models have already been incorporated into simulation and analysis software by all major U.S. rotorcraft manufacturers. The effort proposed here is to extend these models from rotor and rotor wake aerodynamics to include full aircraft aerodynamics, including the fuselage, empennage and wing, for both tiltrotors and conventional helicopters. A three-pronged effort is proposed involving, (1) expansion of existing methods to include real-time physical models of all aircraft component aerodynamics, (2) incorporation of new models into government and industry tiltrotor simulations and (3) development of an automated process for fine-tuning the models for precise recovery of flight test data. Emphasis will be on developing flexible, robust, modules easy to install across multiple simulation platforms and scalable to improve in fidelity as computer hardware improves.