Aerospace Applications

Model aerospace systems using Simulink^® and Aerospace Blockset™ software

Simulink allows you to model and simulate a variety of aerospace systems. These example models illustrate aerospace applications.

When modeling aerospace systems in the Simulink environment, consider using Aerospace Blockset. Aerospace Blockset extends Simulink, enabling you to model, simulate, and analyze aerospace vehicle dynamics. You can incorporate vehicle dynamics, validate models of the flight environment, model pilot behavior, and then connect your model to the FlightGear Flight Simulator to visualize simulation results.

Topics

Create Aerospace Models (Aerospace Blockset)
Build models with your Aerospace Blockset software.
About Aerospace Coordinate Systems (Aerospace Blockset)
Define coordinate systems to represent aircraft and spacecraft motion.
Projects Template for Flight Simulation Applications (Aerospace Blockset)
Use projects to help organize large flight simulation modeling projects and make it easier to share projects with others.

Related Information

Aerospace Blockset

Featured Examples

Developing the Apollo Lunar Module Digital Autopilot

"Working on the design of the Lunar Module digital autopilot was the highlight of my career as an engineer. When Neil Armstrong stepped off the LM (Lunar Module) onto the moon's surface, every engineer who contributed to the Apollo program felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. We had succeeded in our goal. We had developed technology that never existed before, and through hard work and meticulous attention to detail, we had created a system that worked flawlessly." -Richard J. Gran, The Apollo 11 Moon Landing: Spacecraft Design Then and Now.

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Helicopter Modeling and Simulation

Model, simulate, control, and visualize a helicopter subsystem in Simulink® using the Rotor and 6DOF (Euler Angles) blocks from Aerospace Blockset™.

Since R2024b
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Designing a High Angle of Attack Pitch Mode Control

Use the Control System Toolbox™ and Simulink® Control Design™ to interact with Simulink to design a digital pitch control for the aircraft. In this example, we will design the controller to permit the aircraft to operate at a high angle of attack with minimal pilot workload.

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Simulate Motion in Six Degrees of Freedom (6DOF)

Model six degrees of freedom (6DOF) in Simulink®. The model in this example replicates the motions experienced by an object or vehicle in model in this example replicates axes of rotation (pitch, roll, and yaw) and three axes of translation (heave, surge, and sway). You can switch between using Euler angles and quaternions to model the equations of motion using the representation parameter of the Variant Subsystem block.

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Aircraft Longitudinal Flight Control

Model flight control for the longitudinal motion of an aircraft using first-order linear approximations.

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Radar Tracking Using MATLAB Function Blocks

Create a Kalman filter that estimates the position of an aircraft by using a MATLAB Function block. After estimating the position, the model calls an external MATLAB® function to plot the tracking data.

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Air Traffic Control Radar Design

Model a conceptual air traffic control (ATC) radar simulation based on the radar range equation.

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Design a Guidance System in MATLAB and Simulink

Use the model of the missile airframe presented in a number of published papers on the use of advanced control methods applied to missile autopilot design. See [1], [2], and [3]. The model represents a tail-controlled missile traveling between Mach 2 and Mach 4, at altitudes ranging between 10,000 ft (3,050 m) and 60,000 ft (18,290 m), with typical angles of attack ranging between +/- 20 degrees.

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Airframe Trim and Linearize

Trim and linearize an airframe using Simulink® Control Design™.

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