TABLE OF CONTENTS What a journey it has been so far! Provided you have not skipped the first seven chapters, you have reached Part 2 with a tool chest full of gadgets that aspire to be used for challenging simulation tasks. You are trained in coordinate systems, translational and rotational kinematics, and are able to apply Newton's and Euler's laws to the dynamics of aerospace vehicles.
If you skimmed over the first part, because of your maturity in such matters, you are also welcome to join us. Make sure, however, that you understand my notation and the invariant formulation of dynamic equations. Then it should be easy for you to follow us. To make the following three chapters self-contained, I will derive the equations of motion from first principles.
Let us ease into the world of simulation with simple three-DoF, point-mass models. They are suitable for trajectory studies of rockets, missiles, and aircraft. All you need is an understanding of Newton's second law and basic aerodynamic and propulsion data. In no time will you be productive, churning out time histories of key flight parameters. The more sophisticated five- and six-DoF simulations are left for the following chapters.
In preliminary design, vehicle characteristics are often sketchy and aerodynamics and propulsion data only known approximately. There may be just enough information to build simple three-DoFsimulations. Fortunately, the trajectory of the c.m. of the vehicle is of greater interest than its attitude motions. Therefore, these three-DoF simulations are very useful for initial performance estimates and...
