🚁 FlyLab

Open-source, browser-native, advanced flight-dynamics simulation — zero install.

High-fidelity enough that a controls engineer trusts the numbers. Clear enough that a student learns from them.

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FlyLab is a flight simulator that runs entirely in your browser. It pairs a real-physics simulation core with an interactive 3D cockpit, live telemetry, a mission planner, and tunable control loops — built to grow into a full platform for students, professionals, and engineers.

Why FlyLab

• Real physics, not eye-candy. 6DOF Newton–Euler dynamics, quaternion attitude (no gimbal lock), RK4/RK45 integration, motor/ESC lag, aerodynamic drag, wind & Dryden turbulence, battery sag, and motor-failure injection.
• Reproducible. Seeded RNG means the same run replays bit-for-bit.
• Headless core. The engine (@flylab/core) is framework-agnostic TypeScript — runs in the browser, in a Web Worker, and in Node for CI & batch experiments.
• Configure everything. Airframe, controllers, environment, sensors, and missions are inspectable and adjustable live.
• Analyze. Live charts, CSV export, performance metrics, and (soon) replay, run-comparison, and a scriptable API.

Current features

• 6DOF quadrotor dynamics with RK4 integration
• Cascaded PID: position → velocity → attitude, plus altitude hold
• Flight modes: manual, stabilized, altitude-hold, position-hold, mission
• 3D viewport (orbit / follow / FPV) with trajectory trail, waypoints, wind arrow
• FPV HUD, live telemetry charts, CSV export
• Keyboard + gamepad input
• Wind, turbulence, motor failures, sensor noise

Roadmap

See specs/ROADMAP.md. Highlights ahead: multi-airframe (hexa/octo/fixed-wing/VTOL), blade-element prop aero, full sensor suite + EKF, advanced controllers (LQR/SE3/MPC) with a Controller Lab, react-three-fiber scene editor, multi-drone swarms, scriptable API, learning courses, and a MAVLink / PX4–ArduPilot SITL bridge.

Quick start

npm install
npm run dev        # start the app (Vite)
npm test           # run the test suite (Vitest)
npm run build      # production build

Requires Node 20+.

Deploy (Vercel)

FlyLab is a static SPA — no server required. On Vercel, import the repo and keep the defaults (it auto-detects Vite); vercel.json handles SPA deep-link rewrites and long-term asset caching. The build runs fully client-side and does not use SharedArrayBuffer, so it needs no special COOP/COEP headers.

npm i -g vercel && vercel        # preview
vercel --prod                    # production

Works the same on GitHub Pages, Netlify, or any static host.

How we build: Spec-Driven Development

FlyLab follows spec-kit-style SDD. Nothing non-trivial is coded before its spec exists. The governing principles live in .specify/memory/constitution.md; each feature has a spec.md → plan.md → tasks.md under specs/.

Contributing

We'd love your help — see CONTRIBUTING.md and our Code of Conduct. Good first issues are tagged in the tracker.

Tech stack

React 18 · TypeScript · Vite · Tailwind · shadcn/ui · Three.js · Vitest

License

Apache-2.0 © FlyLab Contributors