Px4-xplane sitl airframe for Fixed Wing and Multicopter and VTOL

[alireza787b]

Add X-Plane SITL Airframes for Cessna 172 and eVTOL Air Taxi Ehang 184 and Alia 250

This pull request adds three new airframes for the PX4 SITL simulation to interface with X-Plane: xplane_cessna172 (5001) , xplane_ehang184 (5010)and xplane_alia 250 (5020). These configurations allow users to simulate a fixed-wing aircraft and an eVTOL air taxi (both multicopter and quadplane VTOL)

Solution

• New airframe configurations: xplane_cessna172, xplane_ehang184 and xplane_alia250 added to the init script.
• Modified CMakeLists.txt to incorporate these airframes into the build process for PX4 SITL.
• Documentation has been updated to guide users on setting up these airframes with X-Plane.

Changelog Entry

For release notes:

- Introduced `xplane_cessna172` (general fixed wing) , `xplane_ehang184` (general multicopter) and `xplane_alia250` (general quadplane VTOL) airframes for SITL simulation in X-Plane.
- Updated setup documentation for new airframes.

Alternatives

Initially, expanding existing airframes (none_iris )was considered; however, introducing distinct configurations ensures clarity and specificity for simulation purposes. In addition for Fixed-wing and VTOL, no custom simulator option is available.

Test coverage

• The new airframes have undergone a series of tests in the X-Plane simulator to confirm their functionality and performance.
• Test flights and demonstrations can be viewed here: PX4 X-Plane Airframe Tests
• The X-Plane plugin is created using X-Plane SDK in C++ and shared in my PX4 X-Plane git Repo

Context

The addition of these airframes marks a step towards broadening the simulation capabilities of PX4 general or custom airframes in X-Plane simulator, offering realistic flight dynamics and control for users developing for both fixed-wing and eVTOL UAVs and many more.

[ryanjAA]

Really awesome!

[ryanjAA]

are there non-windows plugin compiling instructions? or binaries (for Mac) thanks! looking forward to trying this

[alireza787b]

are there non-windows plugin compiling instructions? or binaries (for Mac) thanks! looking forward to trying this

Well I am working on that ... I will add those instructions soon as well ... I have very limited experience building Cpp in macos...

[ryanjAA]

What about in GitHub workflow?

[alireza787b]

What about in GitHub workflow?

I have no experience in that honestly.. but working on that with help of someone...

[alireza787b]

Hello again I just wanted to have an update on this pull request. should I do anything else before it merges? Since I want to create youtube tutorials on this topic and I prefer not to instruct people use my forked repo. I am waiting until this PR merge then create tutorial based onthis . thanks in advance

[ryanjAA]

Really looking forward to this! Any update on Mac?

[alireza787b]

@dagar

Hello,

I have marked this pull request as ready for review again. It includes the new airframes for the PX4 SITL simulation to interface with X-Plane, specifically the Cessna 172, Ehang 184, TB2 and Alia 250 and organized as you requested in last comments.

I am planning to create a YouTube tutorial on this feature, and it would be ideal to have it merged into the official repository to provide clear instructions to users. Could you please review the changes and let me know if any further modifications are required?

Thank you for your support!

Best regards,