In order to maximize stealth potential and aerodynamic performance, internal weapons bays are increasingly common on military aircraft and are particularly key for coming generations of UCAVs. Wind tunnel testing of store release problems therefore generally requires the ordinance to be mounted to its own sting strut from underneath, such that it can be placed in, and "dropped" from, the bay. Interference from this strut can disrupt the forces and moments obtained, and thus an investigation has been conducted into the extent of this interference, looking at the sting arm length and the geometry of the connection to the store as variables over a sweep of angles of attack. Original small-scale transonic wind tunnel testing was conducted, against which a numerical approach was validated, allowing investigations to conclude that the specific geometry of the sting at the attachment point had a much greater influence than any other geometric parameters, with non-linear interference observed through a range of angles of incidence.
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