TRANSONIC WIND-TITNNEL TESTS OF THE LAUNCH, JE'ITISON, AND LONGITUDINAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AN AIRPLCWE- AND MISSILE-MODEL COMBINATION

Tests of an airplane model equipped with missiles were made to inves-An evaluation of pylons suitable for tigate the capability of this combination to achieve satisfactory launch-ing and jettisoning of the missiles. supporting the missiles was made from measurements of forces and moments of the airplane and missile models. The tests were made at Mach numbers from 0.80 to 1.20. Large variations of missile forces and moments were observed for missile positions simulating launch or jettison within the local flow field of the airplane model. At transonic Mach numbers, the influence of the wing leading edge and shocks originating from components of the air-plane were dominant factors contributing to the nonuniformity of the mis-sile flow field. A simplified analysis of the data indicated that for a rapidly accelerating missile, however, these large variations in forces and moments would not cause excessive displacements of the missile when launched from the airplane in level unaccelerated flight. jettison boundaries estimated from the missile jettison data indicate satisfactory jettison would be achieved from the airplane in level flight at sea level but not at 40,000 feet altitude. Idealized Canting o r cambering the pylons supporting the missiles generally resulted only in small changes in the longitudinal force and moment characteristics of the airplane model. pylon mounted, the rolling-moment coefficient was decreased by canting the pylons. However, when the missile wa