An Investigation of New Possibilities to Simplify the Standard Supersonic Area Rule.
Abstract
An investigation was conducted to find out whether there are possibilities to construct a procedure capable of giving reasonably accurate results for the aircraft wave drag coefficient over a range of Mach numbers or, at least, to predict the wave drag changes due to configuration changes. The idea was to build an algorithm starting from the standard supersonic area rule but employing different definitions for the area distribution along the longitudinal axis as applied to the equivalant body of revolution. Instead of using the set of planes tangent to the characteristic Mach cones, lateral surfaces of the cones were used. A computer program to perform the calculations following the procedure proposed was written. Several aircraft configurations were investigated by employing the developed method and very promising results for a particular type of supersonic aircraft configuration at moderate supersonic speeds were obtained. When applied to predict the wave drag of a configuration employing a thin wing of small aspect ratio centrally mounted on a slender fuselage at Mach numbers between 1.4 and 2.0, the method gave results within a range of ten percent accuracy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA137018
Entities
People
- V. R. Nikolic
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology