NASA Open Sources Aircraft Design Software

First time accepted submitter sabre86 writes "At the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Nashville, NASA engineers unveiled the newly open sourced OpenVSP, software that allows users to construct full aircraft models from simple parameters such as wing span and fuselage length, under the NASA Open Source Agreement. Says the website, 'OpenVSP allows the user to create a 3D model of an aircraft defined by common engineering parameters. This model can be processed into formats suitable for engineering analysis.'"

Comments

Re:Strangely

[vlm]

There doesn't seem to be a Linux port at the moment?

The link you're looking for is

http://www.openvsp.org/zips/OpenVSP_2.0_community_src.zip

They do not distribute a pre-compiled packaged linux version. Download source, compile, install locally, or wait for the inevitable Debian package to be created (assuming its "open source" license is DFSG free, I have not bothered to analyze it in detail)

Paper

[vlm]

All I can get from the website/wiki is thats its a tool that processes things, which is kind of vague.

I found this paper via google:

http://www.mae.virginia.edu/meclab/images/AIAA%20Paper%20--%20VSP.pdf

Not a goatse link, honest.

If you remember the microsoft flightsimulators of the 80s/90s you could list specs and it would make you a plane, like make me a plane with a 50 foot wingspan and then you would attempt to fly it. This is pretty much the same idea for spec'ing a plane but instead of simulating flying it, it dumps out a file containing the model that you can do "whatever" with. Something like clippy for aerospace cad "so you seem to be trying to make a twin engine turboprop, would you like a wizard to help with that?".

Re:MakerBot compatible?

[vlm]

It outputs to rhino, and rhino outputs (with some effort relating to units conversion, or so I hear) to makerbot, so yeah, you could make a model of a X-1 or X-15 or similar rocket powered plane, make a cylindrical cavity in the model for a little estes model rocket engine, and you'd almost be flying, except for the little problem that it might model aerodynamically, but the center of gravity is pretty much ignored, you you're going to have to figure that part out.

Foamies Anyone?

[alphacharliezero]

As someone who is into foam-built RC aircraft I am excited by the possibilities of this software. Electronics not included, a plane costs me about $10 to build. While I've built enough planes that I can just 'wing it' (See what I did there?), It would be fun to use this software to design RC planes...

Re:MakerBot compatible?

[Baloroth]

Wait, are you telling me we can download planes now? Sweet!

Yes, RIAA, I totally would download a plane.

Re:Give away, give it away now...

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Or they could just buy a copy of X-Plane for $79. Don't laugh, it's fscking phenomenal. Uses parametric airfoil designs and lots more. I'd be willing to bet some serious coin that the X-Plane designer is way better than OpenVSP; certainly X-Plane is going to be much more mature, it's been around forever.

Not affiliated, just a VERY impressed user.

Re:rethink plane designs for safety in emergencies

[not-my-real-name]

What do you think that the airplane designers are doing? The aircraft industry is incredibly safety conscious. That's one of the reasons that everything is so expensive. The whole plane parachute is used on Cirrus airplanes and has saved some lives. Seats have been designed to protect people in impacts up to 26Gs. You can get seatbelts with airbags installed.

Every aircraft accident (at least in the U.S.) is investigated. The goal is to find out what caused the accident and how to prevent it. NASA has a program called ASRS which encourages pilots to report anything that might impact safety.

Please do a little research and see what is being done before accusing people of dragging their heels in the dirt.