Subsonic Panel Methods - Second (Order) Thoughts

VSAERO, a subsonic panel method, has grown from a maximum of 1000 panels (unknowns) to the routine use of 10000 panels to model aircraft such as an MD-11 with deployed slats and flaps. The increasing complexity required improvements in user-friendliness including: a robust flow solver; graphical interfaces to generate input and visualize output; algorithms which produce correct results (within the assumptions of potential flow); diagnostics to signal when the assumptions are violated; increased versatility with body wakes and jet exhausts; and multiple ways of generating a model.