The Bug List for Public Domain Computer Programs for the Aeronautical Engineer

Last updated 2022 July 3
This list is maintained with the most recent item on top.

2022 July 03
The kernel program no longer compiles with latest version of gfortran and using std=legacy does not cure the problem. I will look at this when a few other fires are put out. If anyone would like to debug the problem and fix the errors, I would greatly appreciate it.

2021 July 10
The download page for Digital Datcom promises that you may download a file called datcomexec.zip containing executables for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The file was there, but only contained a file for Mac OS. The file had now been updated. Thanks to Cameron Urban, Melwyn Carlo, and Atef Ghalayini for spotting this.

2021 February 28
Windows 10 now has a command called getmac that lets you discover various fact about your network. Unfortunately, if you download the mean aerodynamic chord program and then type getmac to launch it, you would be quite surprised to find a network utility pop up on your screen. This applies only to Windows; no problem for those on MacOS or Linux. The best short solution is to rename getmac.exe, perhaps getmac2.exe, and then there will be no conflict. For future releases, I think I should rename the program. I am thinking about calling it meanaerochord, which is long compared to the other codes, but explanatory. Thanks to John Eaton for spotting this.

8 November 2018
The file atmos76.f90 in the folder atmos on the CD has an error. You can download a new copy of atmos.zip from the page atmosdownload.html. Thanks to Ryan Zehr and Keith Owens for pointing out the error. The error only applied to altitudes greater than 86 km.

16 September 2017
The file sink.for was missing from therm1d.zip and has been restored.
Thanks to Laurant Costa for spotting this omission.

17 March 2015
The file hotcold.f90 was missing from atmos.zip and has been restored.

5 January 2013.
There is an error in the source code to the Celestial Coordinate Transformation package, CELEST. The best way to correct this is to download a new copy of celest.zip from the program page http://www.pdas.com/celest.html and thanks to Nathaniel Cook for finding this error. The error is in subroutine GalacticToEquatorial, roughly 33-34 lines from the top.
The lines

  lambdaLocal=lambdaLocal*DEG2RAD
  betaLocal=betaLocal*DEG2RAD

should be deleted, as they are performed in the lines that follow.

26 September 2012.
The files containing the DATCOM reference manual have missing pages! See the page fixedDatcomDocs.html for instructions on getting a good copy. Thanks to Steve Peterson for spotting this.

10 November 2010 - There is a typo in the naca456 program. The error is in file nacax.f90 in subroutine GetRk1 in the definition of array KTAB. The proper statement is

REAL,PARAMETER,DIMENSION(5):: KTAB = (/ 361.4, 51.64, 15.957, 6.643, 3.23/) ! typo fixed 7 Nov 2010 -----------------^

The erroneous value was 15.967, which leads to an error of one part in 1595, so I doubt if anyone has been harmed by this typo. But, you may want to patch your source code. Thanks to sharp-eyed Robert Stone of Northrop Grumman for spotting this one.

8 August 2009 - Another file missing from the CD. The file named input.txt from the Mass Properties program is not present. [fixed in 2010]. Reload massprop.zip to get the correct files. Another catch from Graham Feltham!

7 August 2009 - In the readme.txt for the Vortex Lattice Minimum Drag program, you are promised a copy of NASA TN D-8090 on the CD. But, it isn't there! Oops, my error. You can , download a copy from the PDAS web site. Thanks to Graham Feltham for noticing this. [Fixed in 2010].

7 May 2009 - There is a bug in wavedrag that may give a zero or negative fuselage cross-section area when enriching the area distribution function. The fix was to change the zero threshhold from 1E-8 to 1E-7 in the fitting algorithm. You may download wavedrag.zip for a revised copy of d2500.for plus executables d2500.exe, d2500.mac, and d2500.lnx for the different platforms. Again, thanks to the U. Sydney folks for those sharp eyes.

26 April 2009 - The wingbody program was shipped with an error that came to light when I changed from the Lahey fortran compiler to gfortran. Download wingbody.zip for replacement files. Thanks to Kai Lehmkuehler and the U. Sydney design team for spotting this.

22 April 2009 - The kernel program has a problem compiling correctly with gfortran. I will look into this.

18 March 2009 - Some of the test cases for VASP do not work correctly. Example 4 is especially dangerous because it goes into an infinite loop with write statements and will fill your hard disk. Beware!

18 March 2009 - Problem 5 in Gas Properties gives zero output. Something is wrong here.

18 March 2009 - There is still a problem with the program hab2wgs in the /2wgs directory. I will try to get this going soon.

6 April 2001 - If you are running PanAir on a Unix system, you may encounter fatal execution errors if you use the sample files on the disc as test cases. This is because they are MS-DOS style text files and each line is terminated with a carriage return and a line feed. For Unix, you want the line feed but not the carriage return. There are a number of utilities on Unix that will do this conversion. The command
    col -bx
seems to do the job and some text editors will do it (you might have to Import rather than Open).
Thanks to Sven Kassbohm for pointing out this one.