Useful Aerospace Tools

Quick List:

  • Flow5

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    flow5 is a potential flow solver with built-in pre- and post processing functionalities. It is a preliminary design and analysis tool for planes and sails operating at low Reynolds numbers. Note: XFoil is not part of flow5, the program uses XFLR5 as a back-end to generate the 2d viscous data.

  • XFLR5

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    XFLR5 is a preliminary design and analysis tool for airfoils, wings, and planes operating at low Reynolds Numbers. It includes: 1) XFoil's Direct/Inverse analysis, 2) Wing design and analysis based on the Lifiting Line Theory, Vortex Lattice Method, and 3D Panel Method.

  • Aeolus ASP

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    Aeolus ASP is an aerodynamic analysis and optimization tool. It allows you to easily model fixed-wing aircraft configurations and propeller blades. It also allows you to optimize model parameters (such as wing/propeller shape, or flight condition) to meet your design requirements.

  • PANAIR - Panel Aerodynamics

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    PANAIR (an abbreviation for "panel aerodynamics") is a state-of-the art computer program developed to predict inviscid subsonic and supersonic flows about an arbitrary configuration by means of a higher order panel method.

  • Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)

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    Here, you can find valuable aeronautical computer programs complete with public domain source code, instructions and sample cases.

  • Apame 3D Panel Method

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    Apame is a 3D Panel Method program used for calculating aerodynamic forces and moments acting on an aircraft in flight. Apame can replace CFD programs for subsonic attached flows where calculation time is important and friction drag can be ignored.

  • J2 Universal Tool-Kit

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    J2 Universal Tool-Kit provides a whole aircraft modelling, analysis and simulation capability in a single fully integrated application Tool-Kit running on a Windows OS.

  • JAVA Applets (JavaFoil and JavaProp)

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    JavaFoil is a relatively simple program, which uses several traditional methods for airfoil analysis such as higher order panel method for potential flow analysis and integral method for boundary layer analysis. JavaProp is a relatively simple program, which is based on the blade element theory.

  • Athena Vortex Lattice (AVL)

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    AVL is a program for the aerodynamic and flight-dynamic analysis of rigid aircraft of arbitrary configuration. It employs an extended vortex lattice model for the lifting surfaces, together with a slender-body model for fuselages and nacelles.

  • JBlade

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    JBLADE is an open-source propeller design and analysis code based on QBLADE and XFLR5. JBLADE uses the classical Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory modified to account for the 3D flow equilibrium.

  • XFOIL

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    XFOIL is an interactive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils. It consists of a collection of menu-driven routines which perform various useful functions such as viscous (or inviscid) analysis of an existing airfoil, airfoil design by interactive modification of surface speed distributions, and airfoil redesign by interactive modification of geometric parameters.

  • QBLADE

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    QBlade is an open source wind turbine calculation software. The integration of the XFoil and XFLR5 functionality allows the user to rapidly design custom airfoils and compute their performance polars and directly integrate them into a wind turbine rotor design and simulation.

  • Digital Datcom

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    This computer program calculates static stability, high lift and control, and dynamic derivative characteristics using the methods contained in the USAF Stability and Control Datcom (Data Compendium). The program contains a trim option that computes control deflections and aerodynamic increments for vehicle trim at subsonic Mach numbers.

  • Open Rocket

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    OpenRocket is a free, fully featured model rocket simulator that allows you to design and simulate your rockets before you build and flying them.

  • Open VSP

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    OpenVSP is a parametric aircraft geometry tool. OpenVSP allows the user to create a 3D model of an aircraft defined by common engineering parameters. This model can be processed into formats suitable for engineering analysis.

  • CEASIOMpy

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    CEASIOMpy is an open source conceptual aircraft design environment. CEASIOMpy can be used to set up complex design and optimization workflows, both for conventional and unconventional aircraft configurations. Tools for various disciplines in aircraft design are provided, however, the aerodynamic tools are the most developed. They allow to automatically generate aerodynamic meshes and perform CFD calculation.

  • SUAVE

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    SUAVE is a conceptual level aircraft design environment built with the ability to analyze and optimize both conventional and unconventional designs. This capability is achieved in part by allowing analysis information for aircraft to be drawn from multiple sources. SUAVE provides a framework that can be used to design aircraft featuring advanced technologies by augmenting relevant correlations with physics-based methods.

  • CPACS

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    The Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema (CPACS) describes the characteristics of aircraft, rotorcraft, engines, climate impact, fleets and mission in a structured, hierarchical manner. CPACS enables engineers to exchange information between their tools. It is therefore a driver for multi-disciplinary and multi-fidelity design in distributed environments.