The Research Of Helicopter Flight Simulation System Based On FlightGear

The helicopter has several characteristics including landing and takeoff vertically as well as suspend. Therefore, the helicopter is widely used in various domains. At the same time, owing to the need of study about helicopter theory and its engineering development, the research on helicopter simulation has been developing vigorously.This paper is based on the theories of helicopter aerodynamics model, flight dynamics model and manipulation control, combed with OpenGL dynamic three-dimensional display technology and a software system about helicopter flight simulation is designed and developed using FlightGear open platform. A real-time three-dimensional simulation system with full-featured and full-motion is constructed, breaking through lots of modeling limitations in the past.Firstly, the paper introduces the development and characteristics of helicopter, and summarizes some content about the flight simulation, then establishes helicopter mathematical model and builds the models for all functional modules using the theory about helicopter part model, and analyses the simulation algorithm and solution flow.Secondly, a detailed presentation is processed to the functions of software components of FlightGear, such as OpenGL, Plib and SimGear. A detailed analysis and research of the organization and functions of FlightGear has been carried out in terms of flight simulator. A helicopter visual system mainly combined with architecture of FlightGear is designed according to the flight simulator performance requirements.Finally, the helicopter dynamics model has been developed by C++ program language and the environment for system has been configured, which makes the model become a new dynamic engine to integrate with FlightGear. At the same time, the two-dimensional panel is drawn and the three-dimensional helicopter mode is re-formed by using OpenGL technology.Because of FlightGear's own powerful functions, not only the straight visual inspection of the helicopter model can be processed, but also the flight data can be recorded which is used to research for helicopter.It is an attempt to study helicopter simulate system based on FlightGear. Some achievements have been made in this paper. Seen from the program's running result, the simulation achieves anticipated effect. However, further research on flight data should be conducted in order to determine the model's practicability.