After 30 years Xfoil still didn't have a GUI
I was extreamly fustrated by the cumbersome nature that many of the tools that we as aerospace engineers use in the inital stages of ideation, planning, and desing. BetterAero builds upon the two-dimensional airfoil analysis capabilities of Xfoil by seamlessly integrating it with a broad array of publicly available datasets, including the UIUC Airfoil Database. By offering an expanded suite of functionalities, it enables users to efficiently analyze and aggregate data for multiple airfoils across varying conditions, while providing effortless export options for further processing and advanced analysis. In addition, it offers a comprehensive set of commonly used tools that are integral to the initial stages of the airfoil design process.
The project is still under development and not yet publicly available; however, you can view a preview now at betteraero.com. For a more in-depth walkthrough or business inquiries, all contact information can be found on the Contact page.
Type: Aerospace / Applied Software Devlopment
Problems: Xfoil didn't have a GUI or an public API that fufilled all the requirements I needed for rapid airfoil analysis (airfoil geometry manipulation, flow visualization, e.t.c), xfoil was not connected to any databases which made comparing a range of different airfoils slow and cumbersome
Goal: Produce a smoother, more efficent expirence for aerospace preleminary ideation and design, and allow for quick access to a host of commonly used aerospace tools and calculators
Solutions: Wrap Xfoil in a python wrapper and host it as a internal microservice API running off of Google Cloud, build a frontend application for the Xfoil interface with robust data export pathways, and combine all the extranous input parameters and calculators into a single location for ease of use
Time: Ongoing
Learned Skills:
Why is it so unnessecarily difficult to process a substantial amount of inital airfoil simulations at once?
The Xfoil exiprence, or inital airfoil design and analysis process is not as smooth as it could be
Isolate the key usecases and issues involved in the process, and plan specific ways how they can be smoothed out
Learn how to host microservices, how to build a GUI, Learn how to connect microservices to backend API's, Learn the nessecary components of an Xfoil process, Research some of the math behind Xfoil
Build using a mix of personal knowledge, youtube, and AI to produce a solution to this issue