Development of a Flight Dynamics Modelof a Flying Wing Configuration

Abstract: The subject of UCAV design is an important topic nowadays and many countries have their own programmes. An international group, under the initiative of the NATO RTO AVT-201 Task group, titled “Extended Assessment of Reliable Stability & Control Prediction Methods for NATO Air Vehicles”, is currently performing intensive analysis on a generic UCAV configuration, named SACCON. In this thesis the stability and control characteristics of the SACCON are investigated, with the purpose of carrying out a comprehensive assessment of the flying qualities of the design. The study included the generation of the complete aerodynamic database of the aircraft, on the basis of the experimental data measured during TN2514 and TN2540 campaigns at DNW-NWB low speed wind tunnel. Moreover, system identification techniques were adopted for the extraction of dynamic derivatives from the time histories of forced oscillation runs. The trim of the aircraft was evaluated across the points of a reasonable test envelope, so as to define a set of plausible operative conditions, representing the reference conditions for subsequent linearization of the dynamic model. The study provided a thorough description of the stability and control characteristics and flying qualities of the unaugmented SACCON, laying the groundwork for future improvement and validation of the configuration in the next design stages.