Tools
Airport Operations & Air Traffic Management
ATC Simulation & Training High‑fidelity simulators for controller training, procedure development, and system integration testing * Adacel MaxSim ATC Simulator : https://www.adacel.com/maxsim-air-traffic-control-simulation-training * Aerotechnica‑MLT CASS 2D Simulator : http://www.aerotechnica-mlt.com/ * ARTISYS ORION Series Simulator : https://artisys-simulator.com/ * Edda ATCSim Simulator : https://www.eddasystems.com/ * Edda eCoach 3D
Mathew Lewallen
Flight Dynamics & Control System Design
Open‑Source Flight‑Dynamics Engines Core simulators that solve the equations of motion for fixed‑wing and rotorcraft vehicles. * XFOIL : http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/xfoil/ * JSBSim : https://jsbsim.sourceforge.net/ * FlightGear : https://www.flightgear.org/ * FlightGear YASim : https://wiki.flightgear.org/YASim * FlightGear LaRCsim : https://wiki.flightgear.
Mathew Lewallen
Aerodynamics & CFD
Finite Volume Solvers Finite‑volume methods discretize the governing fluid equations into conservation form over control volumes and are the workhorses for both compressible and incompressible flow simulations * OpenFOAM: https://www.openfoam.com/ * ANSYS Fluent: https://www.ansys.com/products/fluids/ansys-fluent * ANSYS CFX: https://www.ansys.com/products/fluids/
Mathew Lewallen
Aviation
Aerospace Post is your go-to source for breaking industry news, expert analysis, and hands-on tutorials—fueling the next generation of aerospace innovation.
Mathew Lewallen
Avionics & Embedded Systems
Real‑Time Operating Systems (RTOS) RTOS provide deterministic task scheduling and low‑latency response required for safety‑critical avionics software * Wind River VxWorks: https://www.windriver.com/products/vxworks * Green Hills INTEGRITY: https://www.ghs.com/products/integrity.html * QNX Neutrino RTOS: https://blackberry.qnx.com/en/products/neutrino-rtos * LynxOS
Mathew Lewallen
Data Analytics & Machine Learning
Core ML Frameworks & Libraries Foundational open‑source toolkits for designing, training, and evaluating machine‑learning models. * TensorFlow : https://www.tensorflow.org/ * PyTorch : https://pytorch.org/ * Scikit‑learn : https://scikit-learn.org/ * Keras : https://keras.io/ * XGBoost : https://xgboost.ai/ * LightGBM : https://lightgbm.readthedocs.io/ * CatBoost : https://catboost.ai/ * Apache MXNet : https:
Mathew Lewallen
Ground Segment & RF Links
Link‑Budget Calculators Design aids that estimate received signal strength by summing transmitter power, antenna gains, path losses, and system margins. 1. Pasternack Link Budget Calculator : https://www.pasternack.com/t-calculator-link-budget.aspx 2. Everything RF Link Budget Calculator : https://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/link-budget-calculator 3. AFAR RF Link Budget Calculator
Mathew Lewallen
Maintenance | Repair | Overhaul
CMMS & EAM Platforms Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) suites for work‑order, inventory, and asset‑lifecycle management. * IBM Maximo (Application Suite): https://www.ibm.com/products/maximo Software Connect * FIIX CMMS: https://www.fiixsoftware.com * Fracttal One: https://www.fracttal.com * Limble CMMS: https://limblecmms.
Mathew Lewallen
Material & Additive Manufacturing
CAD & Modeling Tools Software for part design, topology optimization, mesh editing, and geometry preparation before slicing. * Blender: https://www.blender.org/ * FreeCAD: https://www.freecadweb.org/ * OpenSCAD: https://openscad.org/ * SelfCAD: https://www.selfcad.com/ * 3D Slash: https://www.3dslash.net/ * Onshape: https://www.onshape.com/ * Fusion 360: https://www.
Mathew Lewallen
Mission Operations & Telemetry Processing
Mission‑Control Frameworks & Command & Data Handling Platforms that host dashboards, procedures, and C&DH workflows for real‑time spacecraft monitoring and control. * Open MCT : https://nasa.github.io/openmct/ * quantumCommand : https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa/ground-data-systems-and-mission-operations/ * quantumFEP : https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa/ground-data-systems-and-mission-operations/ * quantumRadio : https://www.nasa.gov/
Mathew Lewallen
Propulsion & Thermal Analysis
NASA Component Modules Toolkits for steady‑state and transient simulation of individual engine components (combustion chambers, turbines, pumps, nozzles, valves, etc.) * SNAP: https://software.nasa.gov/software/LEW-17816-1 * MAPSS: https://software.nasa.gov/software/LEW-17674-1 * C‑MAPSS: https://software.nasa.gov/software/LEW-18315-1 * V072 Rotor Wake/Stator Interaction: https://software.
Mathew Lewallen
Satellite Constellation & Coverage Analysis
Constellation Modeling & Simulation Tools for defining and simulating multi‑satellite architectures and orbital parameters. * AVM Dynamics Satellite Constellation Modeler : http://www.avmdynamics.com/index1.htm * FreeFlyer : https://ai-solutions.com/freeflyer/ * Systems Tool Kit (STK) : https://www.agi.com/products/stk * STK Constellation Module : https://www.agi.com/products/stk/applications/
Mathew Lewallen
Space Mission Design
NASA and Open Source Small Spacecraft Avionics PyCubed PyCubed is an open-source, radiation-tested CubeSat avionics platform that integrates power, computing, communication, and attitude determination and control functionality into a single low-cost PC104-compatible module programmable entirely in Python. POC: support@pycubed.org Guidance, Navigation, and Control Commercial Off-The-Shelf Star Tracker (COTS
Mathew Lewallen
Structures & FEA
General‑Purpose Commercial FEA Suites Widely used, full‑featured packages for linear, nonlinear, static, dynamic, thermal, and multiphysics analysis in aerospace and other industries. * Abaqus: https://www.3ds.com/products/simulia/abaqus * ANSYS Mechanical: https://www.ansys.com/products/structures/ansys-mechanical * COMSOL Multiphysics: https://www.comsol.com/comsol-multiphysics * MSC Nastran:
Mathew Lewallen
Systems Engineering & Requirement Management
Requirements Management & ALM Platforms that capture, organize, and manage requirements across projects * IBM DOORS Next : https://www.ibm.com/products/requirements-management * IBM Engineering Requirements DOORS : https://www.ibm.com/products/engineering-requirements-doors * Polarion ALM : https://polarion.plm.automation.siemens.com/ * PTC Integrity Lifecycle Manager : https://www.ptc.com/en/products/plm/
Mathew Lewallen
UAS & Drone Operations
Flight Planning & Mission Management Tools that allow users to design, upload, and monitor autonomous flight paths. * Dronedesk: https://dronedesk.io * DroneDeploy: https://www.dronedeploy.com * Pix4Dcapture: https://www.pix4d.com/product/pix4dcapture * UgCS: https://www.sphengineering.com/flight-planning/ugcs * DJI GS Pro: https://www.dji.com/ground-station-pro * Litchi: https://flylitchi.
Mathew Lewallen
VR, AR, & Immersive Visualization
Core Engines & Platforms Provide the rendering, physics and asset pipelines for building immersive applications. * Unity 3D: https://unity.com/ * Unreal Engine: https://www.unrealengine.com/ * CryEngine: https://www.cryengine.com/ * Godot Engine: https://godotengine.org/ AR Frameworks & SDKs Computer‑vision, tracking and spatial‑mapping toolkits for marker‑based and markerless
Mathew Lewallen
Updated on Jul 18, 2025