Advanced Fixed Wing Tool

The Advanced Fixed Wing Tool allows you to define a highly precise set of physical properties for the aircraft that you are modeling. These physical properties are mapped to the advanced class of performance models. The properties defined in this tool are saved at the catalog level, and each aircraft model is limited to one set of definitions for them.

Geometry

The Geometry properties group describes the dimensions of individual control surfaces of the aircraft. You can define the total Wing Area, Flaps Area, and Speedbrakes Area.

Aerodynamics

The Aerodynamics properties group describes the aircraft's aerodynamic performance using one of three broad strategies:

Click to open the properties window for the currently selected strategy. Click Create Aero File... to create an .aero file using the current property settings of the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool.

Powerplant

The Powerplant properties group describes the aircraft's propulsion performance using one of several empirical models of aircraft engine systems:

Click to open the properties window for the currently selected strategy. Click Create Prop File... to create a .prop file using the current property settings of the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool.

Structural and Human Factors Limits

The Structural and Human Factors Limits properties group describes the performance limitations of the aircraft with respect to the structural integrity of the aircraft or the survival of humans flying in it. You can define the maximum altitude (Max Altitude), maximum mach speed (Max Mach Number), maximum equivalent airspeed (Max EAS), and the load factor limits (Min Load Factor and Max Load Factor) that the aircraft or its occupants can bear.

The Max Mach Number cannot be greater than the Mach limits of the currently selected Aerodynamics and Powerplant strategies; if you modify a Mach limit in one of those strategies so that it is less than the Max Mach Number, Aviator will display a warning message that it must reduce the Max Mach Number to a compliant value. You can click OK to accept the new value or Cancel to undo the change that you made to the strategy's Mach limit.

Flight Envelope

The Flight Envelope tool allows you to compare the performance characteristics of various aircraft designs. The Contours and Levels drop-down menus allows you to control the data being displayed in the profile. Click Compare to Reference Envelope to load an Advanced Performance Fixed Wing Configuration (.fwcf) file and display its data in the profile for comparison with the current property settings. Click anywhere in the profile to view information about the aircraft's performance in the Data at point properties group. The Font Size and Show Colored Lines and Legend options allow you to adjust the appearance of the profile.

You can define the Weight, Drag Index, Load Factor, Delta Temperature, Power, and Airspeed Type that you want to evaluate. Properties that you set in this tool are defined only within this tool, for analysis purposes; the aircraft's actual property settings remain unchanged.

The Flight Envelope tool can be used alongside the Flight Test tool and the main window of the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool so that you can make a change in any of the windows and evaluate the impact of that change across all three tools.

Flight Test

The Flight Test tool allows you to compare the performance characteristics of the current aircraft design with the actual performance of another aircraft, loaded from a .ftinput file. You can use this tool to make direct comparisons to a known aircraft and then redefine properties in the main window of the Advanced Fixed Wing tool to iterate your design closer to that of the compared aircraft.

Click to browse to the .ftinput file that you want evaluate. Click Reload to update the current .ftinput file if it has been changed. Click Save FTOUTPUT ... to save the calculated and actual data in the tool to an .ftoutput reference file.

The Flight Test tool can be used alongside the Flight Envelope tool and the main window of the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool so that you can make a change in any of the windows and evaluate the impact of that change across all three tools.

Create Performance Models

The "advanced" class of performance models is comprised of Acceleration, Climb, Cruise, Descent, Landing, and Takeoff models that provide a set of parameters that define the operational performance of the aircraft while incorporating the physical properties of the aircraft that are currently defined in the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool.

To create advanced Acceleration, Climb, Cruise, Descent, Landing, and Takeoff performance models from the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool, click Create Performance Models. In the Create Advanced Performance Models window, you can use the Perf Model Name field to give each performance model in the created set the same name. Select Overwrite existing performance models to replace any performance models with the same name that is in the Perf Model Name field. Select Copy to clipboard to place a copy of the performance models on the clipboard, in addition to saving them to the performance models list for the aircraft. Select Set as default to set the performance models that are created as the default performance models for the aircraft.

Advanced performance models do not embed the properties defined in the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool; they are always mapped to the current definitions in the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool.

Exporting and Importing Configurations

The settings specified in the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool can be saved to an Advanced Performance Fixed Wing Configuration file, which has a .fwcf extension.

Click Export to save your current settings to a file. If the current configuration includes an external aerodynamics or propulsion file, the file will be embedded in the .fwcf file when it is created.

Click Import to populate the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool with the settings from a previously saved file. If the imported .fwcf file contains embedded aerodynamics or propulsion files, these files will be extracted and implemented automatically.