This paper presents the challenging approach carried out by MBDA on ground trials for the latest generation of air-to-air missile and its process to clear the way for flight trials. A classical ground trial approach combines wind tunnel tests for the aerodynamic airframe development with connected pipe, quasi/semi free jet tests for the propulsion system development. Free jet trials associated with ground launch firings are the dedicated synthesis trials allowing to combine aerodynamic airframe with propulsion system prior to air carriage firings. Based on its past experience, MBDA has balanced the gain in performance prediction coming from ground launch firings with the reduction on cost and development timescale coming from their suppression. The outcome of this analysis is a new challenging Ground Trial approach making the free jet trials the very last step before going to air carriage firings, avoiding the costly and time demanding ground launch firings. To enable to make that step, the free jet trials has been made part of the flight clearance process linking the trials objective to risk reduction activities such as functionality demonstration of flight hardware and software in an early development stage or modelling improvement of the aeropropulsive solution. The first MBDA air-to-air missile to take that path is the METEOR BVRAAM Missile. With the throttable ducted Rocket Ramjet and asymmetric airframe of the METEOR Missile, it has been necessary to upgrade the existing S4MA wind tunnel at the ONERA Modane Centre. The engineering work required to provide this facility with free jet experiment capabilities including a new balance and missile support system referenced as mobile strut, to meet MBDA test objectives, was conducted by the engineering department of ONERA (ONERA/DRIM). The overall trials architecture has reached a high level of complexity enabling to test METEOR aeropropulsive airframe in severe missile attitudes despite keeping the capacity to access to thrust minus drag measurement. Extended environmental data have remained accessible due to the ground aspect of the free jet. Through the METEOR Free Jet Trials campaign, the aeropropulsive airframe functionality in operating at nominal and severe incidence and sideslip angles will be demonstrated as well as the thrust performance for all missile flight phases. With the achievement of this campaign, MBDA will be in position to clear the way to the first METEOR Flight.
展开▼
