Calculations based on engineering models of the Orbiter entry flow-field, coupled with heat transfer and pressure data from wind tunnel tests, are currently being used to establish methodologies to support vehicle design and trajectory shaping studies. Specifically, the flow-field perturbation which results when the fuselage-generated shock wave interacts with the wing-generated shock wave is particularly important in the design of the Orbiter wing leading-edge. Because of the complexity of the viscid-inviscid inter¬action phenomena, many experimental investigations of the locally perturbed flow-fields use models consisting of elementary configurations.
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