Thursday, November 20, 2014

119 Open Source Aeronautical Engineering Tools

* permanent page with updates: Open Source Aeronautical Engineering Tools*
I posted a list of 33 open source aeronautical engineering tools 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 PDAS collection, 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-viewpublic domainPerspective 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 Dynamicspublic domainAnalyze the transient response of an ablating axisymmetric body, including the effect of shape change. / ABAXI
Ablative Nozzle Materialspublic domainPredict the ablation performance of rocket nozzle heat protection materials. (work-in-progress) / ABLATE
Aeroelastic Analysispublic domainEstimate the planform and aeroelastic effect on stability derivatives and induced drag. (work-in-progress) / ELASTIC
Aircraft roll-out iterative energy simulation programpublic domainAnalyze 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 Motionspublic domainDerive aircraft motions, forces, and accelerations from radar range data. / ATC
Annular Duct Velocitypublic domainCompute 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 Dragpublic domainClosed 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
Atmospherepublic domainCharacteristics 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 plumepublic domainPredict the gas dynamic and chemical properties of underexpanded rocket plumes. (work-in-progress) / AIPP
AVL GNU GPLaerodynamics, vortex lattice code
Blender GNU GPL3D modeling and animation tool. Demonstrated for shape deformation to support optimal design.
BRLCADBSD, GNU LGPLv2open source solid modeling system that includes interactive geometry editing, high-performance ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis, image and signal-processing tools
CalculixGNU GPLfinite element solver
Cascade Flow (2D)public domainNonrotating Blade-To-Blade, Steady, Potential Transonic Cascade Flow Analysis Code (work-in-progress) / CAS2D
CEASIOMCEASIOM EULAMATLABconceptual aircraft design
Celestial Coordinate Transformationspublic domainThere 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
CGALGNU GPL, LGPLComputational Geometry Algorithms Library, unstructured mesh generation capability
Cold Arcpublic domainDissociated air flow effects during plasma arc testing. (work-in-progress) / COLDARC
Compressible Flow Calculatorpublic domainMake 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 Calculationpublic domainThe 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 Relaxationpublic domainConical relaxation program for supersonic wing design and analysis (work-in-progress) / COREL
Contour Plotting (I)public domainA General Algorithm For The Construction Of Contour Plots / CONPLOT
Contour Plotting (II)public domainGeneralized digital contouring program / CONTOUR
Core RHSEGNOSAimage segmentation
DakotaGNU LGPLoptimization, parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification
Digital Datcompublic domainEstimate 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
Divergencepublic domainAeroelastic divergence characteristics of unguided, slender body, multi-stage launch vehicles (work-in-progress) / DIVERGE
ElmerGNU GPLv2finite element solver
Epplerpublic domainThe well-known Eppler airfoil program including boundary layer analysis. / EPPLER
F2PYGNU LGPLFortran 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 Datapublic domainCompute 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 dynamicspublic domainSimulate 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
FlightGearGNU GPLFlightGear 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 Inletpublic domainBased on 2D or axisymmetric method of characteristics. NASA Ames program by Virginia Sorensen. / INLET
Fluid Propertiespublic domainA 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 Theorypublic domainA 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
FreeCADGNU LGPLparametric 3D modeler
FreeFEM++GNU LGPLv2.1a partial differential equation solver
GasPropertiespublic domainCompute 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 Conversionpublic domainConvert 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
gmshGNU GPLv23D finite element grid generator with a build-in CAD engine and post-processor
GRAPEpublic domainTwo-Dimensional Grids About Airfoils And Other Shapes By The Use Of Poisson's Equation> / GRAPE
GrowlerNOSAdistributed object and event architecture
HeeksCAD/CNCBSD 3-clause3D CAD application with extensive CAM features
HiFiLESGNU GPLv3High 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 domainThis 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 domainThis 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 Plannerpublic domainA flexible interplanetary mission analysis program using patched conics. (work-in-progress) / TOMARS
IPEGpublic domainImproved Price Estimation Guidelines (work-in-progress) / IPEG
JSBSIMGNU LGPLv2flight 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 Functionpublic domainCompute unsteady aerodynamics with a kernel function technique which uses assumed pressure functions with unknown coefficients. (work-in-progress) / KERNEL
Line Interpolation public domainTools to help you get those needed data points when doing an airplane layout. / LININTRP
Line Intersectionpublic domainTools to help you get those needed data points when doing an airplane layout. / LININTRP
LONGLIBpublic domainA Graphics Library for Engineering Plots. (work-in-progress) / LONGLIB
Mars Relay Communication Link public domainEvaluates 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 Structurepublic domainRapidly calculate the mass properties of complex rigid structural systems. / MASSPROP
MatplotlibBSD compatiblematplotlib 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 Chordpublic domainCompute the mean aerodynamic chord of a wing of arbitrary planform. / GETMAC
Missile Liftpublic domainAerodynamic Lift On Wing-Body Combinations At Small Angles Of Attack In Supersonic Flow (work-in-progress) / MISLIFT
Mission Analysispublic domainA segmented mission analysis program for low and high speed aircraft. (work-in-progress) / NSEG
NACA Airfoils.public domainThe 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 RepositoryvariousA 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 processorpublic domainPlot the results from NASTRAN. (work-in-progress) / NASTPLT
Nozzle Exhaustpublic domainAnalysis of three-dimensional supersonic nozzle exhaust flow fields (work-in-progress) / EXHAUST
OpenCASCADEGNU LGPLv2.13D modeling and visualization
OpenFOAMGNU GPLcomputational 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
OpenMDAOApache V. 2.0multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization
OpenOptBSD 4-clausenumerical optimization
OpenSCADGNU GPLv2software for creating solid 3D CAD objects
OpenVSPNOSAopen source parametric aircraft geometry tool, vehicle sketch pad
Optical Systems Analysispublic domainA General Optical Systems Evaluation Program (work-in-progress) / GOPTICS
Optimal Regulator Algorithms for the Control of Linear Systemspublic domainDesign controllers and optimal filters for systems which can be modeled by linear, time-invariant differential and difference equations. / ORACLS
Optimum Flight Path (I)public domainA vertical profile which minimizes aircraft fuel burn or direct operating cost (work-in-progress) / OPTIM
Optimum Flight Path (II)public domainOptimum Trajectory of a Turbofan Airplane / OPTTRAJ
Pablopublic domainCompute aerodynamic properties of an airfoil with boundary layer. Similar to Eppler, but coded with MatLab. / PABLO
Panair (A502)public domainHigh 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-processorpublic domainHelps create the carefully formatted input files to PanAir. / PANIN
Parametrized Investigation of Launch Opportunities and Trajectoriespublic domainDelimits launch widows to define the dates and times of day that a satellite may be launched to satisfy mission constraints. (work-in-progress) / PILOT
PDASpublic domainPublic Domain Aeronautical Software
Polynomial Root Finderpublic domainSolves quartic/cubic/quadratic polynomial equations with real coefficients taking special care in accuracy and precision. / QUARTIC
pyOptGNU LGPLnumerical optimization
Quiz Programpublic domainAn 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 Subroutinespublic domainScientific 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
Rotorcraftpublic domainAeroelastic Analysis for Rotorcraft in Flight or in a Wind Tunnel (work-in-progress) / ROTOR
ScilabCeCILLnumerical computing
SciPySciPy Licensescientific computing with python
Silhouettepublic domainPerspective 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 Analysispublic domainAnalyzes electrical circuits to assist in the design of wiring bundles. (work-in-progress) / SNEAK
Solar Powered Satellitepublic domainComputes 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 Boompublic domainThis program computes the propagation of a sonic boon through the earth's atmosphere. / BOOM
Space Shuttle Synthesis Program public domainConceptual design synthesis of one- or two-stage launch vehicles. (work-in-progress) / SSSP
SU2GNU LGPLv2.1Stanford University Unstructured CFD code
Super/Hypersonic Inviscid Flowpublic domainComputes the inviscid supersonic/hypersonic flowfield about complex vehicle geometries. (work-in-progress) / SHIFARC
Supersonic Wing Analysispublic domainCombines source and vortex panel singularities for calculating the linear theory estimate of supersonic configuration aerodynamics. (work-in-progress) / W12SC3
Supersonic Wing Designpublic domainThe famous Carlson-Middleton program for supersonic wing design. (work-in-progress) / TEA201
Takeoff and Landing of Transport Aircraftpublic domainThis 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 Flowfieldpublic domainVelocities And Streamlines on a Blade-To-Blade Stream Surface of a Tandem Blade Turbomachine. (work-in-progress) / TANDEM
Thermal Protection Systempublic domainMultidimensional Heat Conduction Program (work-in-progress) / TPS
Thermal Responsepublic domainOne-Dimensional Numerical Analysis Of The Transient Thermal Response Of Multilayer Insulative Systems (work-in-progress) / THERM1D
Three-Dimensional Supersonic Viscous Flowpublic domainDetermine the viscous and inviscid flow about a body of revolution at angle of attack. (work-in-progress) / AOFA
Tidypublic domainA program for renumbering statements in a Fortran program. / TIDY
TIPSODdata visualization
ToPyGNU GPLv3A 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).
TornadoGNU GPLv2MATLABaerodynamics
Trajectory Operations and Requirementspublic domainMonte Carlo Investigation Of Trajectory Operations And Requirements. (work-in-progress) / MONITOR
Turbine Rotor Bladepublic domainDesign of Two-Dimensional Supersonic Turbine Rotor Blades with Boundary-Layer Correction (work-in-progress) / RBLADE
Turbulent skin frictionpublic domainA coding of the reference temperature method of Barbara Short and Simon Sommer of NASA Ames. / TURBSF
V/STOL Aircraft Sizing and Performancepublic domainPerforms comparative design study of V/STOL aircraft systems yielding aircraft size and mission performance data. (work-in-progress) / VASCOMP
Variable Dimension Automatic Synthesis Programpublic domainVASP 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 Optimizationpublic domainThe 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 Realitypublic domainThis program makes a VRML model (a .wrl file) from a wireframe geometry in LaWGS format. (work-in-progress) / VRML
Visualize Three-Dimensional Surfacespublic domainVisualize a function of two variables. / VIEWER
Vortex Lattice Minimum Drag (VLMD)public domainThis 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 Rulepublic domainThis is the famous Harris Wave Drag Program from NASA Langley. / WAVEDRAG
WingBody panel codepublic domainSubsonic/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 generatorpublic domainCreates wireframe models of simple wings and bodies. / MAKEWGS
XFLR5GNU GPLanalysis tool for airfoils, wings and planes operating at low Reynolds Numbers
XFoilGNU GPLinteractive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils

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