Models and software tools actually used for aircraft simulation and design are typically based on a separate modeling of flight dynamics and aeroelasticity. While this approach was justified for past relatively stiff configurations, it may not adequately capture the inherently coupled behavior of modern increasingly flexible vehicles. As aircraft flexibility increase, assuming a rigid-body model when studying flight dynamics may give incorrect results on performance, stability, handling qualities, and control effectiveness. In the same way, neglecting the aircraft motion as a whole when investigating aeroelastic behavior may lead to inaccurate prediction of flutter margins and response to atmospheric disturbances. Unique models and analysis tools should be thus used to effectively describe modern and future aeronautical configurations. The scope of this project is to develop a computational environment for aircraft simulation and design based on an integrated formulation of flight dynamics and aeroelasticity. The underlying physical model fully captures couplings between rigid-body dynamics, structural dynamics, and aerodynamics. In addition, it is oriented to the integration of state-of-the-art high-order solvers and software tools for the single disciplines in a unique reduced-order multidisciplinary framework. Due to these features, the model allows to analyze drawbacks and potential benefits arising from mutual interactions, which is not possible using standard single-discipline solvers, and to describe complex configurations with high fidelity but at the same time computational burden feasible for design. In the past years, the model has been implemented to study fully coupled linear stability and response of flexible aircraft around steady maneuvers. The present project aims to improve and extend the existing computational environment to make it an advanced tool for simulation and design of modern flexible vehicles.
