Store Separation Equations of Motion

摘要

Combat aircraft utilize expendable stores such as missiles, bombs, flares, and external tanks to execute their missions. Safe and acceptable separation of these stores from the parent aircraft is essential for meeting the mission objectives. The equations of motion for a store in free flight are similar to the conventional aircraft flight dynamics equations prevalent in the literature. However, a careful distinction is necessary due to the relative motion of two neighboring bodies. Of specific interest is the store motion relative to the aircraft; knowledge of which is necessary for modeling the aerodynamic interaction between the store and aircraft. This paper presents an in depth development of the store separation equations of motion with particular emphasis on the motion of the store relative to the parent aircraft. The same framework is used to derive the kinematic differential equations used for flight test trajectory reconstruction based on inertial measurements. The relationship between trajectory reconstruction and the equations of motion leads to a method for estimating the aerodynamic forces and moments directly from flight test data. An example based on separation of a representative store from an F-16 aircraft is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of store separation trajectory prediction and trajectory reconstruction.