An Overview of the Layered and Extensible Aircraft Performance System (LEAPS) DevelopmentThe Layered and Extensible Aircraft Performance System (LEAPS) is a new sizing and synthesis tool being developed within the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch (ASAB) at NASA Langley Research Center. It is a modular, multidisciplinary, multi- fidelity sizing and synthesis tool for modeling advanced aircraft concepts and architectures such as electric/hybrid-electric propulsion, unconventional propulsion airframe integration, and non-traditional mission trajectories. The development of LEAPS is motivated by the lack of existing tools that meet the needs of ASAB. The Flight Optimization System (FLOPS) has been the primary sizing and synthesis tool of ASAB for three decades. However, FLOPS has a number of limitations that make it dicult to use for unconventional aircraft designs. Three high-level goals have been adopted to guide the LEAPS development pro- cess. LEAPS is being developed in Python with an architecture built to enable a exible and extensible analysis capability using the concept of an aircraft object that combines data and analysis models. Five challenge problems for LEAPS have been identi ed to measure progress: analysis of a conventional tube-and-wing aircraft using legacy methods, coupled aeroelastic analysis for weight estimation of a conventional tube-and-wing aircraft, analysis of an advanced hybrid-electric concept, analysis of the X-57 Maxwell distributed electric propulsion aircraft, and optimization of the trajectory of a supersonic vehicle to minimize sonic boom. LEAPS will be a publicly available capability of exceptional quality with modularity and extensibility that makes it a robust tool for design and analysis of current and future unconventional aircraft concepts.
Document ID
20190000442
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Welstead, Jason R. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Caldwell, Darrell (Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Condotta, Ryan (Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Monroe, Nerissa (Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
February 7, 2019
Publication Date
January 18, 2018
Subject Category
Aeronautics (General)
Report/Patent Number
NF1676L-27420
Meeting Information
Meeting: AIAA SciTech 2018
Location: Kissimmee, FL
Country: United States
Start Date: January 8, 2018
End Date: January 12, 2018
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics