Development of Flight Simulator for Human-Powered Aircraft (Second Report)

A special-purpose flight simulator of a human-powered aircraft (HPA) was planned and developed in 2005-2006. and installed for the first time at Nihon University in Japan in 2007 lor pilot training, the analysis of flight characteristics. and the optimal design of an HPA. Since the installation of the simulator, we have focused on improving its accuracy. However. unlike a general aircraft, an HPA generates the thrust through the pilot pedaling the propeller. Therefore, to develop a mathematical model of an objective HPA, we clarified the mathematical relationship between the torque generated by the pilot and the propeller thrust. In addition, to realize a more accurate simulation of the motion of an actual HPA, aerodynamic coefficients were evaluated using estimation equations for a conventional aircraft. The airframe data of the HPA used were those of Miiwe 22 produced by a Nihon University student team in 2004. The result of stability analysis showed that the HPA has an unstable spiral mode under lateral motion. This result coincides with the unstable behavior of another HPA (Mowe 24) flied in 2007 when subjected to lateral wind. To improve the instability of the lateral motion, we provide to a pilot with a voice command and verify whether the new method stabilizes the lateral motion using a flight simulator.