Development and Integration of a Flight Dynamics Module into the ODE4HERA Open Digital Platform

The pursuit for cleaner aviation pushes research in hybrid-electric aircraft, which are far more complex systems than conventional airplanes. In this respect, the ODE4HERA European project aims to accelerate the development of such systems with the implementation of a solution-neutral Open Digital Platform, driving the design from top level requirements to virtual verification and validation. In this respect, the authors developed and integrated a flight dynamics module in a co-simulation environment aiming at the performance verification of the reference hybrid-electric aircraft through flight simulation. The implementation of a point mass model was sufficiently accurate to comply with the preliminary objectives of the project, paving the way for a higher-fidelity and more complex flight dynamics and control systems.