HomeAerospace Engineering & Orbital MechanicsVTOL Hover Balance 2D: Planar Rigid-Body Thrust Vectoring

VTOL Hover Balance 2D: Planar Rigid-Body Thrust Vectoring

Interactive 2D counterpart to the VTOL hover-balance simulation: an independently-computed planar rigid-body model where a vectorable main nozzle and a real nose-mounted reaction-control jet both apply true 2D cross-product torques, so pitch attitude and vertical thrust are coupled exactly the way Newton's third law requires.

Aerospace Engineering & Orbital Mechanics2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-vertical-takeoff-landing-thrust-vectoring ↗ Open standalone

This is the 2D counterpart to the 3D VTOL hover-balance simulation, built as an independent planar rigid-body model rather than a flattened version of the same scene. A jump-jet aircraft hovering on vectored thrust has no wings doing useful work at zero airspeed, so this model computes every newton of lift and every attitude-correcting torque directly from two real thrusters using explicit 2D cross-product mechanics (τ = r_x·F_y − r_y·F_x): a vectorable main nozzle below the center of gravity, and a nose-mounted reaction-control jet. Unlike the 3D engine's roll axis — an abstract torque coefficient with no accompanying reaction force — the nose RCS jet here contributes to both the rotational and translational equations of motion simultaneously, so trimming it both corrects pitch and nudges vertical velocity, exactly the momentum bookkeeping a real reaction-control thruster obeys. Throttle, nozzle angle, and RCS trim are full rigid-body controls, and switching on gusts forces you to actively counter random disturbance torques the way a real flight-control computer does many times a second.

⚙ Under the hood

The 2D counterpart to the VTOL hover-balance simulation: an independent planar rigid-body model where a vectorable main nozzle and a real nose-mounted reaction-control jet both apply explicit 2D cross-product torques, so pitch attitude and vertical thrust stay physically coupled.

VTOLthrust vectoringaerospacerigid bodyhover control2D physicsflight dynamics

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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