on LinkedIn a couple days ago. One of the comments was a question about how open they all really were so I added a column to the list for the license and any non-free dependencies (i.e. Matlab). I went ahead and made an entry for each of the pieces of software from Ralph Carmichael's
, which added 84 public domain pieces of software. In addition, there are 23 with various flavors of GNU, 4 BSD-style, and 3 NASA open source agreement (NOSA) codes. See the whole list below the fold. Please suggest adds/changes/deletes in the comments.
| Name | License | Non-free Dependency | Description |
| 3-view | public domain | | Perspective views of an arbitrary configuration defined by wireframe meshes of gridpoints with hidden line removal. Written by David Hedgley of NASA Dryden. A very simple program called 3view is also included that produces plan, side, and rear views from the same input file. / HLP |
| Ablation Dynamics | public domain | | Analyze the transient response of an ablating axisymmetric body, including the effect of shape change. / ABAXI |
| Ablative Nozzle Materials | public domain | | Predict the ablation performance of rocket nozzle heat protection materials. (work-in-progress) / ABLATE |
| Aeroelastic Analysis | public domain | | Estimate the planform and aeroelastic effect on stability derivatives and induced drag. (work-in-progress) / ELASTIC |
| Aircraft roll-out iterative energy simulation program | public domain | | Analyze brake performance during landing rollout. It incorporates actual flight data from telemetry. Developed for the Space Shuttle vehicle. (work-in-progress) / ARIES |
| Analysis of Aircraft Motions | public domain | | Derive aircraft motions, forces, and accelerations from radar range data. / ATC |
| Annular Duct Velocity | public domain | | Compute the velocity distribution along an arbitrary line between the inner and outer walls of an annular duct with axisymmetric swirling flow. (work-in-progress) / ANDUCT |
| Arrow Wing Wave Drag | public domain | | Closed form solution for the wave drag of an arrow or delta wing with sharp edges based on work of Rogers and Puckett and Stewart. / ROGERS |
| Atmosphere | public domain | | Characteristics of the 1976 standard atmosphere to 1000 km altitude. An atmosphere procedure is given that you may include in your own programs. Separate versions are supplied in Basic, C, Fortran, Pascal, C++, and Fortran90, Visual Basic and Delphi, IDL, and Python. Sample programs are included that print an atmosphere table. Non-standard atmosphere routines (hot, cold, polar, tropical) are also included. / ATMOS |
| Atmospheric interaction plume | public domain | | Predict the gas dynamic and chemical properties of underexpanded rocket plumes. (work-in-progress) / AIPP |
| AVL | GNU GPL | | aerodynamics, vortex lattice code |
| Blender | GNU GPL | | 3D modeling and animation tool. Demonstrated for shape deformation to support optimal design. |
| BRLCAD | BSD, GNU LGPLv2 | | open source solid modeling system that includes interactive geometry editing, high-performance ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis, image and signal-processing tools |
| Calculix | GNU GPL | | finite element solver |
| Cascade Flow (2D) | public domain | | Nonrotating Blade-To-Blade, Steady, Potential Transonic Cascade Flow Analysis Code (work-in-progress) / CAS2D |
| CEASIOM | CEASIOM EULA | MATLAB | conceptual aircraft design |
| Celestial Coordinate Transformations | public domain | | There are at least three basic frames of reference for celestial coordinates: equatorial, ecliptic, and galactic. This module contains subroutines for performing transformations from one system into another. / CELEST |
| CGAL | GNU GPL, LGPL | | Computational Geometry Algorithms Library, unstructured mesh generation capability |
| Cold Arc | public domain | | Dissociated air flow effects during plasma arc testing. (work-in-progress) / COLDARC |
| Compressible Flow Calculator | public domain | | Make calculations involving isentropic flow, normal shock waves, oblique shock waves, Rayleigh and Fanno flow, and characteristics of the standard atmosphere. / VUCALC |
| Computer Methods for Mathematical Calculation | public domain | | The software from the classic textbook by Forsythe, Malcolm and Moler has been rewritten in modern Fortran along with the sample problems and a number of the end-of-chapter problems. You probably need a copy of the book. / FMM |
| Conical Relaxation | public domain | | Conical relaxation program for supersonic wing design and analysis (work-in-progress) / COREL |
| Contour Plotting (I) | public domain | | A General Algorithm For The Construction Of Contour Plots / CONPLOT |
| Contour Plotting (II) | public domain | | Generalized digital contouring program / CONTOUR |
| Core RHSEG | NOSA | | image segmentation |
| Dakota | GNU LGPL | | optimization, parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification |
| Digital Datcom | public domain | | Estimate stability and control characteristics of a wide variety of airplane and missile configurations with this famous USAF program. Has all example cases from the document, both input and output. / DATCOM |
| Divergence | public domain | | Aeroelastic divergence characteristics of unguided, slender body, multi-stage launch vehicles (work-in-progress) / DIVERGE |
| Elmer | GNU GPLv2 | | finite element solver |
| Eppler | public domain | | The well-known Eppler airfoil program including boundary layer analysis. / EPPLER |
| F2PY | GNU LGPL | | Fortran to Python interface generator. F2PY is a python package (with a command line tool f2py and a module f2py2e) that facilitates creating/building Python C/API extension modules that make it possible to call Fortran77/90/95 external subroutines and Fortran 90/95 module subroutines as well as C functions, and to access Fortran 77 COMMON blocks and Fortran 90/95 module data, including allocatable arrays from Python. |
| Fair Data | public domain | | Compute the coefficients of a smoothing spline that approximates a set of data. Originally designed to be used for wind tunnel data but may be applicable to diverse applications. / FAIRDATA |
| Flexible spacecraft dynamics | public domain | | Simulate a large class of flexible and rigid spacecraft. The flexibility is treated continuously (by use of shape functions) rather than by finite elements. (work-in-progress) / FSD |
| FlightGear | GNU GPL | | FlightGear is an open-source flight simulator. The goal of the FlightGear project is to create a sophisticated and open flight simulator framework for use in research or academic environments, pilot training, as an industry engineering tool, for DIY'ers to pursue their favorite interesting flight simulation idea, and last but certainly not least as a fun, realistic, and challenging desktop flight simulator. |
| Flow Field in Supersonic Inlet | public domain | | Based on 2D or axisymmetric method of characteristics. NASA Ames program by Virginia Sorensen. / INLET |
| Fluid Properties | public domain | | A companion program to GasProperties computes thermodynamic and transport properties of many gases. Treats air and steam as well as pure fluids. From NASA Glenn (Lewis). / FLUID |
| Flutter Analysis by Strip Theory | public domain | | A modified strip analysis has been developed for rapidly predicting flutter of finite-span, swept or unswept wings at subsonic to hypersonic speeds. (work-in-progress) / FLUTTER |
| FreeCAD | GNU LGPL | | parametric 3D modeler |
| FreeFEM++ | GNU LGPLv2.1 | | a partial differential equation solver |
| GasProperties | public domain | | Compute real gas properties of ten important gases over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. Covers cryogenic regions and saturated liquid/gas regions. From NASA Glenn (Lewis). / GASP |
| Geometry Conversion | public domain | | Convert the geometry information for the WaveDrag,WingBody, and PanAir into WGS for input to the hidden-line program or ThreeView. Display your vehicle concepts. / 2WGS |
| gmsh | GNU GPLv2 | | 3D finite element grid generator with a build-in CAD engine and post-processor |
| GRAPE | public domain | | Two-Dimensional Grids About Airfoils And Other Shapes By The Use Of Poisson's Equation> / GRAPE |
| Growler | NOSA | | distributed object and event architecture |
| HeeksCAD/CNC | BSD 3-clause | | 3D CAD application with extensive CAM features |
| HiFiLES | GNU GPLv3 | | High Fidelity Large Eddy Simulation (HiFiLES) is an open-source, high-order, compressible flow solver for unstructured grids built from the ground up to take full advantage of parallel computing architectures. It is specially well-suited for Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) architectures. HiFiLES is written in C++. The code uses the MPI protocol to run on multiple processors, and CUDA to harness GPU performance. |
| Hypersonic Aerodynamics for Arbitrary Bodies. | public domain | | This is a totally new program based on the USAF program written by Gentry, Smyth and Oliver of Douglas Aircraft. Currently, only the inviscid methods are coded. The geometry is supplied in LaWgs (Langley Wireframe Geometry Standard). (work-in-progress) / HYPER |
| Induced Drag from Span Load Distribution. | public domain | | This is a popular algorithm for computing the span load distribution on a planar wing when only a few sparse values of the loading are known. / INDUCED |
| Interplanetary Mission Planner | public domain | | A flexible interplanetary mission analysis program using patched conics. (work-in-progress) / TOMARS |
| IPEG | public domain | | Improved Price Estimation Guidelines (work-in-progress) / IPEG |
| JSBSIM | GNU LGPLv2 | | flight dynamics model including fully configurable flight control system, aerodynamics, propulsion, landing gear arrangement, rotational earth effects on the equations of motion and output formats |
| Kernel Function | public domain | | Compute unsteady aerodynamics with a kernel function technique which uses assumed pressure functions with unknown coefficients. (work-in-progress) / KERNEL |
| Line Interpolation | public domain | | Tools to help you get those needed data points when doing an airplane layout. / LININTRP |
| Line Intersection | public domain | | Tools to help you get those needed data points when doing an airplane layout. / LININTRP |
| LONGLIB | public domain | | A Graphics Library for Engineering Plots. (work-in-progress) / LONGLIB |
| Mars Relay Communication Link | public domain | | Evaluates the communication link between a Mars lander, a Mars orbiter, and Earth. Designed for the Viking mission. (work-in-progress) / RELAY |
| Mass Properties of a Rigid Structure | public domain | | Rapidly calculate the mass properties of complex rigid structural systems. / MASSPROP |
| Matplotlib | BSD compatible | | matplotlib is a python 2D plotting library which produces publication quality figures in a variety of hardcopy formats and interactive environments across platforms. matplotlib can be used in python scripts, the python and ipython shell, web application servers, and six graphical user interface toolkits. |
| Mean Aerodynamic Chord | public domain | | Compute the mean aerodynamic chord of a wing of arbitrary planform. / GETMAC |
| Missile Lift | public domain | | Aerodynamic Lift On Wing-Body Combinations At Small Angles Of Attack In Supersonic Flow (work-in-progress) / MISLIFT |
| Mission Analysis | public domain | | A segmented mission analysis program for low and high speed aircraft. (work-in-progress) / NSEG |
| NACA Airfoils. | public domain | | The coordinates of 4-digit, 4-digit-modified, 5-digit, 6-series, and 16-series airfoils may be accurately calculated. Newly modified to present upper and lower surface points at the same x-coordinate. Totally recoded in modern Fortran using modules. / NACA456 |
| NASA Open Source Repository | various | | A home for the current state of open source software at NASA. Hosts distributed version control, documentation, and planning/management tools that are intended to lower the barriers to entry for software projects to go open. |
| NASTRAN plotting post processor | public domain | | Plot the results from NASTRAN. (work-in-progress) / NASTPLT |
| Nozzle Exhaust | public domain | | Analysis of three-dimensional supersonic nozzle exhaust flow fields (work-in-progress) / EXHAUST |
| OpenCASCADE | GNU LGPLv2.1 | | 3D modeling and visualization |
| OpenFOAM | GNU GPL | | computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package for complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence and heat transfer, to solid dynamics and electromagnetics, also includes tools for meshing |
| OpenMDAO | Apache V. 2.0 | | multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization |
| OpenOpt | BSD 4-clause | | numerical optimization |
| OpenSCAD | GNU GPLv2 | | software for creating solid 3D CAD objects |
| OpenVSP | NOSA | | open source parametric aircraft geometry tool, vehicle sketch pad |
| Optical Systems Analysis | public domain | | A General Optical Systems Evaluation Program (work-in-progress) / GOPTICS |
| Optimal Regulator Algorithms for the Control of Linear Systems | public domain | | Design controllers and optimal filters for systems which can be modeled by linear, time-invariant differential and difference equations. / ORACLS |
| Optimum Flight Path (I) | public domain | | A vertical profile which minimizes aircraft fuel burn or direct operating cost (work-in-progress) / OPTIM |
| Optimum Flight Path (II) | public domain | | Optimum Trajectory of a Turbofan Airplane / OPTTRAJ |
| Pablo | public domain | | Compute aerodynamic properties of an airfoil with boundary layer. Similar to Eppler, but coded with MatLab. / PABLO |
| Panair (A502) | public domain | | High order aerodynamic panel code. The most versatile and accurate of all the linear theory panel codes. Subsonic/supersonic solutions with linear source strength variation and quadratic doublet strength variation. Very versatile boundary condition specifications. / PANAIR |
| PanAir input pre-processor | public domain | | Helps create the carefully formatted input files to PanAir. / PANIN |
| Parametrized Investigation of Launch Opportunities and Trajectories | public domain | | Delimits launch widows to define the dates and times of day that a satellite may be launched to satisfy mission constraints. (work-in-progress) / PILOT |
| PDAS | public domain | | Public Domain Aeronautical Software |
| Polynomial Root Finder | public domain | | Solves quartic/cubic/quadratic polynomial equations with real coefficients taking special care in accuracy and precision. / QUARTIC |
| pyOpt | GNU LGPL | | numerical optimization |
| Quiz Program | public domain | | An educational drill program that will teach you the aviation phonetic alphabet, 3-letter airport codes and more. Easily adaptable to other instructional tasks. / QUIZ |
| Rational Spline Subroutines | public domain | | Scientific data often contains random errors that make plotting and curve-fitting difficult. The Rational-Spline Approximation with Automatic Tension Adjustment algorithm leads to a flexible, smooth representation of experimental data. / RSPLINE |
| Rotorcraft | public domain | | Aeroelastic Analysis for Rotorcraft in Flight or in a Wind Tunnel (work-in-progress) / ROTOR |
| Scilab | CeCILL | | numerical computing |
| SciPy | SciPy License | | scientific computing with python |
| Silhouette | public domain | | Perspective views of an arbitrary configuration defined by wireframe meshes of gridpoints with hidden line removal. Written by David Hedgley of NASA Dryden. A very simple program called 3view is also included that produces plan, side, and rear views from the same input file. / HLP |
| Sneak Circuit Analysis | public domain | | Analyzes electrical circuits to assist in the design of wiring bundles. (work-in-progress) / SNEAK |
| Solar Powered Satellite | public domain | | Computes the solar energy incident on photoelectric array and determines the thermal radiation gained and lost. Once these are known, the amount of power which can be generated and the temperature of the array is determined. / SOLARARR |
| Sonic Boom | public domain | | This program computes the propagation of a sonic boon through the earth's atmosphere. / BOOM |
| Space Shuttle Synthesis Program | public domain | | Conceptual design synthesis of one- or two-stage launch vehicles. (work-in-progress) / SSSP |
| SU2 | GNU LGPLv2.1 | | Stanford University Unstructured CFD code |
| Super/Hypersonic Inviscid Flow | public domain | | Computes the inviscid supersonic/hypersonic flowfield about complex vehicle geometries. (work-in-progress) / SHIFARC |
| Supersonic Wing Analysis | public domain | | Combines source and vortex panel singularities for calculating the linear theory estimate of supersonic configuration aerodynamics. (work-in-progress) / W12SC3 |
| Supersonic Wing Design | public domain | | The famous Carlson-Middleton program for supersonic wing design. (work-in-progress) / TEA201 |
| Takeoff and Landing of Transport Aircraft | public domain | | This program provides for the detailed performance analysis of the takeoff and landing capabilities of specific aircraft designs and allows for sensitivity studies. The program calculates aircraft performance in accordance with the airworthiness standards of the Federal Aviation Regulations. (work-in-progress) / TOL |
| Tandem Blade Flowfield | public domain | | Velocities And Streamlines on a Blade-To-Blade Stream Surface of a Tandem Blade Turbomachine. (work-in-progress) / TANDEM |
| Thermal Protection System | public domain | | Multidimensional Heat Conduction Program (work-in-progress) / TPS |
| Thermal Response | public domain | | One-Dimensional Numerical Analysis Of The Transient Thermal Response Of Multilayer Insulative Systems (work-in-progress) / THERM1D |
| Three-Dimensional Supersonic Viscous Flow | public domain | | Determine the viscous and inviscid flow about a body of revolution at angle of attack. (work-in-progress) / AOFA |
| Tidy | public domain | | A program for renumbering statements in a Fortran program. / TIDY |
| TIPSOD | | | data visualization |
| ToPy | GNU GPLv3 | | A program (written in Python) to solve one of three types of topology optimisation problems. You type a simple text input file (TPD file) and define one of the following three problems: minimum compliance, heat conduction, or mechanism design (synthesis). |
| Tornado | GNU GPLv2 | MATLAB | aerodynamics |
| Trajectory Operations and Requirements | public domain | | Monte Carlo Investigation Of Trajectory Operations And Requirements. (work-in-progress) / MONITOR |
| Turbine Rotor Blade | public domain | | Design of Two-Dimensional Supersonic Turbine Rotor Blades with Boundary-Layer Correction (work-in-progress) / RBLADE |
| Turbulent skin friction | public domain | | A coding of the reference temperature method of Barbara Short and Simon Sommer of NASA Ames. / TURBSF |
| V/STOL Aircraft Sizing and Performance | public domain | | Performs comparative design study of V/STOL aircraft systems yielding aircraft size and mission performance data. (work-in-progress) / VASCOMP |
| Variable Dimension Automatic Synthesis Program | public domain | | VASP is a variable dimension Fortran version of the Automatic Synthesis Program, used to implement Kalman filtering and control theory. / VASP |
| Variable Metric Algorithm for Constrained Optimization | public domain | | The algorithm is based upon a variable metric method presented by M.J.D. Powell and a quadratic programming method by R. Fletcher. VMACO is a non-linear program developed to calculate the least value of a function of n variables subject to general constraints (both equality and inequality). / VMACO |
| Virtual Reality | public domain | | This program makes a VRML model (a .wrl file) from a wireframe geometry in LaWGS format. (work-in-progress) / VRML |
| Visualize Three-Dimensional Surfaces | public domain | | Visualize a function of two variables. / VIEWER |
| Vortex Lattice Minimum Drag (VLMD) | public domain | | This is one of many versions of the vortex lattice aerodynamic program from the low speed aerodynamics group at NASA Langley. / VLMD |
| Wave Drag by Area Rule | public domain | | This is the famous Harris Wave Drag Program from NASA Langley. / WAVEDRAG |
| WingBody panel code | public domain | | Subsonic/Supersonic Aerodynamics of simple wing-body-tail combinations. This is the Woodward panel code that includes calculation of the wing shape for minimum drag in supersonic cruise. / WINGBODY |
| Wireframe generator | public domain | | Creates wireframe models of simple wings and bodies. / MAKEWGS |
| XFLR5 | GNU GPL | | analysis tool for airfoils, wings and planes operating at low Reynolds Numbers |
| XFoil | GNU GPL | | interactive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils |
Any future updates will be on this permanent page:
ReplyDeleteOpen Source Aeronautical Engineering Tools
Just added a couple astro ones to the list: GMAT, ODTBX
DeleteAdded the NASA CFD Utilities Library to the Open Source Aeronautical Engineering Tools list.
ReplyDeleteHere's a good list of CAD software: Open Source Ecology: CAD Tools
ReplyDelete