Vilius Portapas

Contact

• workRoom B109 Coates
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work+44 (0) 115 74 86020
• Vilius.Portapas@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Vilius joined the University of Nottingham in January 2022 as an Assistant Professor of Flight dynamics and control. He teaches on Year 2 "Dynamics and flight mechanics" (MMME2030) module and leads Year 3 "Advanced flight dynamics" (MMME3043) module. He is part of G2TRC research group and his research focuses on modeling, simulation and piloted simulation trials of flying vehicles.

Prior to joining the University of Nottingham, Vilius spent three years at the University of the West of England, Bristol, where he taught flight and piloting related subjects, and was a principal investigator on the UKRI funded Future Flight Challenge project.

Vilius obtained his PhD degree in Aerospace engineering from Cranfield University, after being awarded MRes degree in Fluid dynamics by the von Karman Institute of Fluid Dynamics and MSc degree in Aircraft piloting by Vilnius Tech university. He has also held his commercial pilot licence with multi-engine and instrument ratings since 2013.

Expertise Summary

Vilius has acquired experience in and may provide expertise on the following topics:

1. Modeling and simulation of flying vehicles - development of flight dynamic models in MATLAB/Simulink environment.
2. Piloted simulation trials - testing of flying/handling qualities.
3. Real-time simulations.
4. Piloted aircraft assessments.

Teaching Summary

Vilius is teaching on the following modules:

1. MMME2030 "Dynamics and Flight Mechanics" - flight mechanics part of the module
2. MMME3043 "Advanced Flight Dynamics" - full module

He also leads flight test course activities using the National Flying Laboratory Centre aircraft at Cranfield University.

Research Summary

Vilius' research focuses on flight dynamics modelling and handling qualities analysis of advanced air mobility systems, in particular electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft and high aspect… read more

Selected Publications

• PORTAPAS, VILIUS and COOKE, ALASTAIR K., 2020. Simulated pilot-in-the-loop testing of handling qualities of the flexible wing aircraft Aviation. 24(1), 1-9
• LOPEZ MATOS, GUILLERMO E., PORTAPAS, VILIUS, DUSSART, GAÉTAN X., LONE, MOHAMMAD M. and COETZEE, ETIENNE, 2018. Pilot-in-the-loop flight simulation of flexible aircraft in Matlab/Simulink: Implementation and coding peculiarities In: AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference.
• DUSSART, GAÉTAN X., PORTAPAS, VILIUS, PONTILLO, ALESSANDRO and LONE, MOHAMMAD M., 2018. Flight dynamic modelling and simulation of large flexible aircraft. In: VOLKOV, KONSTANTIN, ed., Flight Physics - Models, Techniques and Technologies InTech. 49-72
• PORTAPAS, VILIUS, YUSUF, SEZSY Y., LONE, MOHAMMAD M. and COETZEE, ETIENNE, 2017. Modelling framework for handling qualities analysis of flexible aircraft In: AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference.

• View all publications

Current Research

Vilius' research focuses on flight dynamics modelling and handling qualities analysis of advanced air mobility systems, in particular electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft and high aspect ratio flexible wing aircraft.

Past Research

Previously, Vilius was a principal investigator on UWE Bristol's contributions towards UKRI Future Flight Challenge Phase 2 project "Dock to Dock (D2D) Hydrogen eVTOL Freight Transportation" (Innovate UK Ref. no.: 71499) and led modelling and simulation activities of an eVTOL aircraft. Prior to that he worked on modelling and simulation, and piloted simulation trials of aeroelastic wing aircraft as a PhD student at the Dynamics, Simulation and Control group, Cranfield University.

Future Research

Vilius is expanding his research activities in advanced air mobility domain and is looking for PhD students interested in AAM.

• PORTAPAS, VILIUS, ZAIDI, YASEEN, BAKUNOWICZ, JERZY, PADDEU, DANIELA, VALERA-MEDINA, AGUSTIN and DIDEY, ARNAUD, 2021. Targeting Global Environmental Challenges by the Means of Novel Multimodal Transport: Concept of Operations In: Fifth World Conference on Smart Trends in Systems Security and Sustainability (WorldS4). 101-106
• PORTAPAS, VILIUS and COOKE, ALASTAIR K., 2020. Simulated pilot-in-the-loop testing of handling qualities of the flexible wing aircraft Aviation. 24(1), 1-9
• CARRIZALES, MARTIN A., DUSSART, GAÉTAN, PORTAPAS, VILIUS, PONTILLO, ALESSANDRO and LONE, MUDASSIR, 2020. Verification of a low fidelity fast simulation framework through RANS simulations CEAS Aeronautical Journal. 11(1), 161-176
• DUSSART, GAÉTAN X., PORTAPAS, VILIUS, PONTILLO, ALESSANDRO and LONE, MOHAMMAD M., 2018. Flight dynamic modelling and simulation of large flexible aircraft. In: VOLKOV, KONSTANTIN, ed., Flight Physics - Models, Techniques and Technologies InTech. 49-72
• LOPEZ MATOS, GUILLERMO E., PORTAPAS, VILIUS, DUSSART, GAÉTAN X., LONE, MOHAMMAD M. and COETZEE, ETIENNE, 2018. Pilot-in-the-loop flight simulation of flexible aircraft in Matlab/Simulink: Implementation and coding peculiarities In: AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference.
• CARRIZALES, MARTIN A., PORTAPAS, VILIUS, DUSSART, GAÉTAN X. and LONE, MOHAMMAD M., 2018. Comparison of reduced order aerodynamic models and RANS simulations for whole aircraft aerodynamics In: AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference.
• DUSSART, GAÉTAN X., YUSUF, SEZSY Y., PORTAPAS, VILIUS, LOPEZ MATOS, GUILLERMO E. and LONE, MOHAMMAD M., 2018. Method to assess lateral handling qualities of aircraft with wingtip morphing In: AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference.
• PORTAPAS, VILIUS, YUSUF, SEZSY Y., LONE, MOHAMMAD M. and COETZEE, ETIENNE, 2017. Modelling framework for handling qualities analysis of flexible aircraft In: AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference.
• PORTAPAS, VILIUS, COOKE, ALASTAIR K. and LONE, MOHAMMAD M., 2016. Modelling framework for flight dynamics of flexible aircraft: Aviation Aviation. 20(4), 173-182
• PORTAPAS, VILIUS and LASAUSKAS, EDUARDAS, 2013. Research of sailplane flight in the spiral, using vortex lattice method: Aviation technologies Aviation technologies. 1(2), 18-21