The technology relates to simulating a dynamic hybrid network. A method for simulating a dynamic hybrid network includes modeling a transmission supply of a mesh network of moving stations on aerial vehicles in flight at each time step in a time series, modeling capacity demand as a function of user distribution data and user behavior data, and computing an aggregate network metric for the dynamic hybrid network including throughput. A method for optimizing throughput of a dynamic hybrid network includes modeling a dynamic hybrid network, including a transmission supply of a mesh network of moving stations, modeling capacity demand as a function of user distribution data and user behavior data, and computing an aggregate network metric; then providing feedback to a controller and causing a change to a station in the network to increase throughput.