Mooney M20M Bravo
The Mooney M20M Bravo is a high-performance turbocharged single-engine piston aircraft produced by Mooney International Corporation. It is part of the long-body Mooney M20 family and is known for its high cruise speed, efficient airframe, retractable landing gear, and distinctive vertical tail design.
This page documents the FlightGear implementation of the Mooney M20M Bravo, an open-source aircraft addon currently under development.
Overview
- Aircraft type: Single-engine piston
- Engine: Lycoming TIO-540-AF1B
- Developer: Philips
- Flight dynamics model: JSBSim
- Development status: Alpha / active FDM and systems development
- Source code: https://github.com/philip2012/Mooney-M20M
FlightGear Implementation
The FlightGear Mooney M20M Bravo project is an open-source aircraft developed using the JSBSim flight dynamics model. Development currently focuses on building a stable aircraft baseline, validating the flight model in runtime testing, and progressively improving systems and visual integration.
At the current stage, the project includes:
- Aircraft directory structure and addon packaging
- Successful aircraft loading in FlightGear
- JSBSim FDM baseline
- Metrics, mass balance, aerodynamics, flight controls, propulsion, ground reactions, and external reactions
- Baseline property-binding and control-input fixes
- Integrated external 3D model
- Static FDM sanity checks
- Control-chain sanity checks
- Baseline retractable-gear FDM behavior
- Stabilized constant-speed propeller behavior for climb testing
- Turbocharged high-altitude climb testing up to FL250
- FL250 ceiling behavior validated with low remaining climb rate near service ceiling
- Pacejka-based tire model for improved ground handling behavior
The current implementation is still an alpha-stage aircraft and should not yet be considered a fully tuned or feature-complete simulation of the M20M Bravo.
Current Development Focus
Current development focuses on:
- Cruise, descent, and stall regression validation from the current climb baseline
- Continued JSBSim FDM refinement
- Engine and propeller behavior outside the validated climb envelope
- Aerodynamic coefficient refinement
- Ground handling refinement
- Retractable gear behavior and animation infrastructure
- Systems scaffolding
- Continued model integration
Ground handling and airborne performance are being developed as separate validation areas. The Pacejka tire model affects ground behavior, while current aero-side testing remains focused on JSBSim flight behavior.
Planned Development
Future development will include:
- Full POH-matched performance envelope
- Finalized cruise, descent, and stall validation
- Improved turbocharged piston engine and constant-speed propeller modeling
- Retractable gear system logic and animation
- Cockpit instrumentation
- Electrical and fuel systems
- Aircraft sounds
- Visual polish and liveries
- Cross-country performance refinement using available reference data
Development
The project is developed as a community addon for FlightGear. The aircraft source files and development history are maintained in a public GitHub repository.
Repository:
https://github.com/philip2012/Mooney-M20M
Development discussion and updates are also available through the BravoWorks community server:
