The Application of an UAV Flight Simulator - The Development of a New Point Mass Model for an Aircraft

This paper proposes a new point mass model for an aircraft. The model was developed in order to realize realistic flight maneuvers utilizing the side-slip condition of an UAV precisely. Unlike a traditional point mass model, it has 4 control variables, that is, the side-slip angle is chosen as one more control variable in addition to 3 control variables: the angle-of-attack, bank angle, and total engine thrust. The model as well as a traditional point mass model with 3 control variables was incorporated into the simulation programs of an UAV flight simulator. The comparison results of the landing approach maneuvers with the flight simulator demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed point mass model.