CONFIGURATION ANALYSIS FOR DYNAMIC MANEUVER PERFORMANCE

A PROGRAM OF WORK LEADING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PREDICTION CAPABILITY APPLICABLE TO ADVANCED AIR FORCE FIGHTER CONFIGURATIONS IN UNSTEADY MANEUVERS INVOLVING NONLINEAR, TIME-DEPENDENT AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS IS PROPOSED. EXISTING ADVANCED COMPUTATIONAL TECHNIQUES TO PREDICT THE FORCES AND MOMENTS ON THE AIRCRAFT WILL BE BASED ON FLOW MODELS WHICH CORRECTLY REPRESENT THE PHYSICS OF THE ACTUAL FLOW. THE AERODYNAMICS PREDICTION MODULE WILL BE COUPLED WITH A TRAJECTORY SIMULATOR TO PREDICT FLIGHT TRAJECTORIES AND TRANSIENT PERFORMANCE OF THE AIRCRAFT IN DYNAMIC MANEUVERS. UNSTEADY VORTEX FIELDS ASSOCIATED WITH ADVANCED FIGHTER AIRCRAFT AT HIGH ANGLES OF INCIDENCE WILL BE INCLUDED FOR THE PREDICTION OF VORTEX-INDUCED NONLINEARITIES. THE PRELIMINARY DESIGN AND ANALYSIS METHOD WILL BE EVALUATED BY COMPARISON OF MEASURED AND PREDICTED PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS. A PILOT COMPUTER CODE WILL RESULT FROM THE PROPOSED FEASIBILITY STUDY.