Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Dynamic Derivatives of an UCAV Configuration

Within the AVT-161 Task Group ,,Assessment of Stability and Control Predictions for NATO Air and Sea Vehicles“ a generic UCAV configuration with rounded leading edges was examined. This configuration is also considered in the DLR internal project UCAV-2010 and is still a challenge in the successor DLR project FaUSST. This paper will give an overview of the main objectives and responsibilities of these projects. Focus is the ability to accurately predict both static and dynamic stability characteristics of UCAV configurations using experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. In order to create a S&C databases for such a configuration it is also necessary to have information about the deflection of control surfaces and its impact on the flight dynamic behaviour. Therefore different wind tunnel models for several wind tunnels and flight conditions are considered and should also be part of the future RTO/AVT-201 activities. In case of slender configurations, incorporating vortical flow and high angles of attack, linear mathematical models for the data evaluation may be insufficient to describe the effects properly and non-linear mathematical models should be employed. Preliminary investigations are done to asses the accuracy of the linear models and the range of application