A pedagogical flight simulator for longitudinal airplane flight

This article presents a bi‐dimensional model of flight and describes the implementation of a flight simulator able to describe the different phases of longitudinal flight of a real airplane. After identifying the relevant physical variables, the equations of motion are written and solved using a numerical integration method. Using computer simulations, flight paths and time evolution of the kinematics variables are analyzed for a complete flight of a light commercial airplane. The simulations take into account and reproduce the basic actions of a pilot to control the flight. The main maneuvers involved in pilotage are also predicted and explained in terms of model parameter variations inducing transitions in the phase space. Finally, the steady‐state configurations are analyzed by means of the linearization of equations in order to gain meaningful information about the dynamical stability of the system. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 18: 144–156, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20177