FP is a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) method coded in Fortran for calculating the flow field and aerodynamic forces of an isolated wing or a wing/body combination in a subsonic freestream, including the effects of shock waves. It utilises a relaxation process to solve finite-difference forms of the full nonlinear velocity-potential equation for the inviscid flow around the three-dimensional geometry. The FP method was developed over a period of years at ARA Bedford and RAE (now QinetiQ, Farnborough) and is made available under the terms of an agreement with QinetiQ. Used originally on mainframe computers, FP has provided valuable data in the design of a number of aircraft. With advances in computers, it has become possible to perform runs of FP on a PC within a few minutes.

An account of the principles of FP, and a number of examples, are given in Part 1. This Item, Part 2 in the series dealing with FP, deals with the practical aspects of running FP and its associated programs in order to obtain reliable results.