thalestmm / computed_air_release_point

TAL CARP

Description

An app that automatically calculates the Computed Air Release Point, an optimal point to launch an airlift package. Usually, this calculation is made by the use of a “Flight Computer”, a plastic device that gives out certain information to calculate the CARP. The only problem is that the total process might take over an hour, in calculating and drawing the final product. With this app, such task can be performed in seconds.

A traditional Flight Computer:

Altough hard to demonstrate all the functionalities of the computer, with its round shape, almost all the calculations are made in a linear form. That was the core concept behind the making of this app. The initial process was to basically find the linear equations that lead to each parameter that must be found in the original (handmade) method.

With that out of the way, the next step was to learn and deploy the FPDF library (the most time consuming task in the development), as the final CARP drawing must be different for each operation.

After all that done, the final step was setting up the GUI, with my selected library being PySimpleGUI, by its advertised and actual simplicity.

The current challenge goes about optimizing the code, loadtime and size of the .exe file. (v 0.90)

A sample demonstration can be seen in the example.pdf file.

The GUI display is available on GUI_screenshot.png

One big consideration is that, as oppose to some older automatic CARP methods (REGIS') within the Brazilian Air Force (BAF) is that with this app the final file is actually drawn out, and not only the values are printed on some prefab drawing, bringing more accuracy to the entire process, as well as better design.

Motivation

→ In my opinion, the traditional process is pretty outdated, also taking in consideration that the whole CARP-making task, when done quickly, takes around 1 or 2 hours, precious time to me

→ I must point that this is one of my first actual projects, since I'm very new to Python and programming in general

→ Last, but not least, I hope to leave something for all the other pilots to use, and ultimatelly to increase efficiency and precision in all of the BAF real missions. This is certainly just a headstart, and I hope to develop another system for further helping the mission as a whole

Functionalities

→ GUI for ease of use with non-programmers (almost everyone within the target audience)

→ Parachute wind limits automatically printed to the final document

→ .exe file for running on devices without Python installed (pyinstaller)

→ The pre-filled data corresponds to a single T-10 A/C parachute, with a load weight of 400 lbs

Next Improvements

→ Optimize app launch time (usually takes a few seconds until the GUI is launched)

→ Add a calculation for multiple parachute launch

→ Minimize loadtime and file size (v.08 takes around 56mb)

→ Maybe restart the virtual environment, adding only the necessary modules

→ Polish the code