Low-Speed Stability and Control of Exploratory Tailless Long-Range Supersonic Configurations

Abstract

This thesis presents studies of the low-speed stability and control of a representative long-range supersonic flight vehicle. The aircraft of interest is a research uninhabited aerial vehicle (R-UAV), a 1/16th scaled model of a concept supersonic business jet. Evaluation of stability and control characteristics is based on a linear time-invariant state-space small-perturbations approach. Low-speed wind tunnel results together with unsteady aerodynamic panel method analysis are the basis for the aerodynamic stability derivatives used. The main goal of this work is to study the effects on stability and controllability of reduction in size or complete elimination of tail surfaces, with particular emphasis on the vertical tail.