Flight Dynamics in Six Degrees-of-Freedom

Be challenged by my post-graduate course on flight dynamics, vivified by my high-fidelity simulations of missiles, aircraft, and hypersonic vehicles with their aerodynamics, propulsion, autopilots, guidance, and INS/GPS navigation.

The first Section reviews my tensor modeling approach and all the coordinate systems you will ever encounter, while deriving the six DoF equations-of-motion, driven by the aerodynamic and propulsive forces. Then you go to work and run the first introductory simulation of the NASA X30 hypersonic vehicle in my CADAC++ environment on your Windows based computer with Microsoft’s C++ compiler.

In the second Section, the remaining subsystems of autopilot, guidance, and seekers complete the missile, aircraft, and hypersonic vehicle models including their noise sources so they can be executed in full stochastic Monte Carlo simulations. Now you will execute the full-up six DoF air-to-air missile simulation and analyze the missile’s launch envelope and terminal miss distance performance.

In the third Section you study the F16 aircraft stability and control using the six DoF simulation. Then learn about INS/GPS navigation and fly the NASA X30 from Cape Canaveral to the stratosphere, release a transfer vehicle into orbit, and, in-turn, launch an interceptor towards a satellite. Using the Monte Carlo methodology, you determine the accuracy of the intercept.

Update April 2024: Simulations compatible with Microsoft VS C++ 2022 are added to the downloadable resources.

Update Oct 2025: CADAC Studio download changed to the landing page of my AIAA textbooks’ fourth edition: "Modeling and Simulation of Aerospace Vehicle Dynamics”.