logoalt Hacker News

hadlock04/24/20251 replyview on HN

What are you using for your physics engine, or how did you go about designing your aero model? I've been poking about with wing aero for a toy flight simulator and there's not a lot written about the design process of modeling this stuff in near-real time.


Replies

stass04/25/2025

I cheated a little bit and don't calculate the fluid dynamics in real time. Instead, I'm using force models from the excellent Aero-Hydrodynamics of Sailing book by Marchaj, which is sadly out of print. I then do iterative balancing of the drag force and combined drag/lift forces on sails until they converge.