EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF A HYPERSONICnGLIDER CONFIGURATION AT A MACH NUMBER OFn6 AND AT FULL-SCALE REYNOLDS NUMBERS

摘要

The aerodynamic characteristics of a hypersonic glider configuration, consisting of a slender olives cylinder with three highly swept wings, spaced. 120° apart, with the wing chord, equal to the body length, were investigated experimentally at a Mach number of 6 and at Reynolds numbers from 6 to l6 million. The objectives were to evaluate the theoretical procedures which had been used to estimate the performance of the glider, and also to evaluate the characteristics of the glider itself. A principal question concerned the viscous drag at full-scale Reynolds number, there being a large difference between the total drags for laminar and turbulent boundary layers.nIt was found that the procedures which had been applied for estimating minimum drag drag due to lift, lift curve slope, and center of pressure were generally accurate within 10 percent. An important exception was the nonlinear contribution to the lift coefficient which had been represented by a Newtonian term. Experimentally, the lift curve was nearly linear within the angle-of-attack range up to 10°. This error affected the estimated lift-drag ratio.