A Study on Flight Display for Space Plane

今年是该项目的最后阶段。今年的研究成果是明确显示航天飞机飞行状态的方法，并对这一项目进行总结。由于航天飞机可以在没有人控制的情况下自动飞行，因此，航天飞机的飞行显示可以作为一种向飞行员警告飞行情况的装置具有重要意义。本研究探讨了利用基于计算机图形学系统的三维显示来评估三维显示的效果。一种是展示三维飞机，向飞行员展示飞机的姿态。另一种是叠加在飞行显示屏上的地形图，以显示在飞行计算机中输入的飞行路线。这些新的显示方法对于快速、定性地显示飞行员的飞行状态非常有效。然而，由于三维显示中定量信息的不足，有必要同时使用传统的显示。在本研究的第一阶段，研究了空间飞机的动力学方程和气动力的建模方法，以获得空间飞机的飞行动力学模型。利用该模型揭示了高超声速飞行的动力学特性。在下一阶段，利用最优控制理论计算空间飞机的飞行轨迹。研究了最优上升路径、巡航路径和返回路径。最后，利用三维计算机图形系统制作了飞行模拟器，建立了航天飞机飞行显示器的设计方法。

This year is a final phase of this project. Research results of this year are to make clear the method of displaying flight conditions of a Space Plane and to summarize this project.Since the Space Plane can fly automatically without human control, it is important that the flight display of the Space Plane can be used as a devise that warns flight conditions to a pilot. This research has investigated the use of the three dimensional display based on the computer graphics system to evaluate the effectiveness of the three dimensional display.Two kinds of three dimensional display are investigated. One is a display of a three dimensional airplane to show the pilot the airplane attitude. The other is the superimposed topographical map over the flight display to illustrate the flight path that was input in the flight computer. These new display methods are very effective to show a pilot flight conditions quickly and qualitatively. However, since quantitative information is not sufficient in the three dimensional display, it is necessary to use the traditional display at the same time.In the first phase of this research, the dynamic equation of the Space Plane and the modeling method for aerodynamic forces are investigated to obtain the flight dynamic model of the Space Plane. Using this model, the dynamic characteristics in the hypersonic flight are revealed. In the next phase, a flight path of the Space Plane is calculated by the use of the optimal control theory. The optimal rising path, cruising path and return path are investigated. In the final phase, a flight simulator with the three dimensional computer graphics system is made to establish the design method for the Space Plane flight display.