AirWake Analysis toolKit Environment

Classical approaches to aircrew training are characterized by several shortcomings, including high costs and lack of realism. These issues have motivated the desire to advance the state-of-the-art in virtual aerial refueling training environments. Such an advance has the potential to provide a cost-effective way of introducing a more realistic environment in performing repetition training. A vital facet of such a training tool is the development of a realistic aircraft aerodynamics models for tanker aircraft, tanker aircraft wakes, receiver aircraft, and boom/drogue interactions. Accurately modeling the aerodynamics of these components is a necessary first step toward a successful advance in simulation capabilities. This work will build upon the results of previous efforts, in which Corvid successfully demonstrated the advancement of two specific aspects of aerial refueling: i) tanker airwake modeling and ii) receiver-wake interactions. Through these programs, Corvid developed the AirWake Analysis toolKit Environment (AWAKE), which accepts wake datasets and spatially varying receiver aeromodels independent of one another, then combines the two to generate force and moment increments due to the air wake interactions. A significant innovation in this approach is the speed at which the routines are able to calculate the data and the coupling factors, which re-introduce the coupling effects between the receiver and the airwake. This Phase II effort will advance the algorithms and capabilities of AWAKE by incorporating the receiver bow wave effects on the tanker into the toolkit, adding unsteadiness into the tanker wake models, expanding upon the library of available tanker and receiver models, continuing validation efforts, and more. Through the collaboration with our partner, Corvid will integrate AWAKE into their simulator module that is currently being developed for the AF. Through this partnership, Corvid will demonstrate AWAKE’s ability to integrate with a third-party simulator environment as well as enhance the capabilities of their simulator by increasing the realism and accuracy of the physics that are currently implemented, resulting in a higher-fidelity, lower-cost training solution compared to what is available on the market today.