Point Mass Helicopter

Overview

This is a simple flight simulator that applies Newtonian physics on a helicopter model, treating it as a point mass. The helicopter can move vertically and horizontally, and can change its yaw angle. The operations are done by (1) applying force and/or torque to the point mass, (2) calculating linear and angular acceleration according to Newton's Law, and (3) calculate linear and angular drag/damping, linear and angular velocity, position, and rotation. Air drag is dependent on the velocity, and angular damping depends on the angular velocity so the velocity and angular velocity are capped and will decrease to 0 if given no input. The terrain is generated using Perlin noise, and it collides with the helicopter. If the acceleration of the helicopter is above 50 m/s^2, it is considered "crashed" and all physical parameters of the helicopter will be reset to its initial state.

Operation

Tools & Libraries

Demo