DynaPyVTOL: A Simulation Code For VTOL Aircraft Flight Dynamics And Control Early Evaluations

Abstract

This paper presents the data structure, models and methods as well as applications of DynaPyVTOL, the in-house ONERA flight dynamics tool. The primary motivation for its creation is to be able to model the flight dynamics of any aircraft configuration composed of rotary and/or fixed wings from the earliest point in the conceptual predesign stage. For this purpose, it has been built in such a way that it can adapt its modelling to the available data and compute a representative trim of the aircraft even in the case of an over-actuated, complex configuration. The overview of its applications includes: steady flight performance with optimal trim computation for any configuration, thruster failure analysis, stability and controllability assessment through model linearization, attainable control set exploration, dynamic flight time simulation, and additional methods for assisting with early design and evaluation of an aircraft and its control laws.