Spatial Wind Modeling for Lighter Than Air Vehicles

A new spatial wind model for handling qualities analysis of lighter than air vehicles is discussed. The equations of motion for a lighter than air vehicle are first reviewed, and assumptions pointed out. Then an approximation is developed to remove the need for a coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach to model vehicle dynamics in the presence of spatially defined winds. The model is based on physical insight, and is capable of being implemented into desktop simulations and real-time piloted simulators. While not as accurate as CFD methods, because this model maintains the physical interaction with the wind while using substantially less computational time, it is useful for control law design tasks, and pilot training. The SkyHook heavy lift airship (HLA) simulation is used to illustrate the capabilities of this method both with and without externally slung loads.