Development of a hardware-in-the-loop simulator and flight simulation of a subscale experimental winged rocket

This paper addresses the development of a hardware-in-the-loop simulator and flight simulation of a subscale experimental winged rocket. The hardware-in-the-loop simulator was developed to evaluate the performance of the winged rocket. Two control strategies for the ascent and return flights were studied using the hardware-in-the-loop simulator. The simulation results showed that the rocket can safely ascend and return using both strategies. However, the results also indicated that both the angle of attack and pitch angle should be used for elevator control during the ascent phase as this produces a high maximum altitude. A flight test of WIRES#014 will be conducted in 2013, and the hardware-in-the-loop simulation results will be compared with real flight data.