Development and Demonstration of a Flight Simulator for the Dual-Aircraft Platform Concept

摘要

Dual-aircraft platform (DAP) is a novel stratospheric satellite concept that features two tethered glider-like unmanned aerial systems which exploit wind speed differential across altitudes (i.e. vertical wind shear) to literally sail without propulsion, analogous to a kite-surfer. A new simulator is developed to provide high-fidelity simulation of a simplified version of the DAP concept in which one glider-like aircraft, based on the MAXA Pro 4m airframe, is tethered to and leading a truck moving along a runway at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF). In this paper, the components of the simulation environment are described including aircraft/cable nonlinear aerodynamic models, cable dynamics, actuator and engine models, wind and turbulence models, pilot-in-the-loop control, autonomous formation flight control, and an X-plane interface used for visualization. This simulator is used to design and evaluate novel controls strategies, including use of an unorthodox control surface configuration, and shown to enable the sailing mode of flight without propulsion.