A SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT FOR ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE AND MISSION CAPABILITIES OF SOLAR POWERED HIGH ALTITUDE AIRCRAFT

Abstract

Aircraft capable of persistent flight in the stratosphere, also called High Altitude Platforms (HAP), are a promising alternative to low Earth orbit satellites, as they can provide both connectivity and Earth observation capabilities at a specific location. Unlike low Earth orbit satellites, these aircraft can operate continuously over the same location and do not produce pollutants during launch. Currently, there are several designs under development, including an experimental aircraft being developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to test promising aircraft technology and payload systems under real flight conditions. During the development of this aircraft, an extensive mission simulation environment was utilized to assess the design’s performance and mission capability. This paper provides an overview of the architecture of this simulation environment, with a special focus on modeling the aircraft’s systems and associated energy flow in addition to estimating the aerodynamic parameters. Furthermore, this publication will introduce the kinematics model used to generate the aircraft’s flight path. Lastly, meaningful simulation results based on a perspective mission for future versions of the aircraft under development are provided.