The success of the MV-22 Osprey has created the opportunity for a new design of gunship, tailored to the task of escorting it, an opportunity identified by many. Existing and emerging rotorcraft technology does not appear to have the complete capability, so this centre-line tiltrotor approach is aimed specifically at the escort duty.

The mission is taken to be escorting the MV-22 throughout a land assault (Marine Corps), to provide cover while the MV-22 is on the ground at the landing zone, and to still have useful capacity for diversions. To meet this task this Escort concept stays with the same core physics of tilting rotors plus fixed wings of the Osprey, but re-configured for gunship duties. The rotors are removed from the wing tips to mount them on the aircraft centre-line as inter-meshing rotors tilting back one-at-a-time, to act as pusher props in the aeroplane mode. The merits and concerns of this approach are discussed.

The study first reviews present tiltrotor technology and how that may develop. It then reviews what may be achievable from the centre-line tiltrotor configuration, the targets needed in key design parameters and design sensitivities, defining what the enabling technologies must achieve for the Escort. In hover, key areas are rotor disk loading and figure of merit, and also the rotor blockage caused by the fuselage and wings. In winged flight, the proprotor propulsive efficiency and the aircraft lift-over-drag are key, and fundamental to the feasibility of any tiltrotor concept, there is the all important transition process.

At this conceptual stage of the Escort, the transition process stands out as the dominant risk, and one that touches on all the others, so it was decided to build and flight test a model. The flight test programme plans are described and initial flight results reported.

This paper presents a new algorithm that predicts the quantity of fuel burned by an aircraft flying at a constant speed and altitude. It considers the continuous fuel burn rate variation with time caused by the gross weight (and centre of gravity position) modification due to the fuel burn process itself. The algorithm was developed for use by the Flight Management System (FMS) and employs the same aircraft performance data as the existing FMS fuel burn prediction algorithms. The new fuel burn method was developed for aircraft models that use the centre of gravity position as well as for models that do not consider the centre of gravity position. This algorithm was developed for normal flight conditions. Algorithm performances were evaluated for two aircraft models: one for models that use an aircraft’s centre of gravity position – a more complex and computing intensive method, and one for those that do not use the centre of gravity position. The validation data were generated based on the information produced on a CMC Electronics – Esterline FMS platform that used identical aircraft models and performance data for identical flight conditions.

The aerodynamic flow conditions on wings and tail surfaces due to the rotational motion of a spinning aeroplane have been investigated in a full-scale spin flight research programme at the Brunel Flight Safety Laboratory. The wing upper surface vortex has been visualised using smoke and tufts on the wing of a Slingsby Firefly. The flow structures on top of both wings, and on top of the horizontal tail surfaces, have also been studied on a Saab Safir. The development of these rotational flow effects has been related to the spin motion and the effect on the spin dynamics has been studied and discussed. Evidence suggests that the turbulent wake from the wing upper surface vortex impinges the tail of the aircraft during the spin entry. It is hypothesised that the turbulent flow structure on the outside upper wing surface is due to additional accelerations induced by the rotational motion of the aeroplane. Furthermore, the lightening in stick force during spin entry and the apparent increase in push force required for spin recovery corresponds to the observed change in flow condition on the horizontal tail. The difference in pressure on the upper and lower horizontal tail surfaces have been measured using differential pressure sensors, and the result corresponds both with the observed flow conditions and earlier research results from NASA.

Hypersonic laminar flow past a compression corner has been numerically investigated using time-accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. Two flow conditions were considered relevant to high and low enthalpy conditions with a total specific enthalpy of 19MJ/kg and 2·8MJ/kg. The Mach number and unit Reynolds number per metre were 7·5, 9·1 and 3·10 × 105 and 32·2 × 105 respectively. These free stream conditions provided attached, incipiently separated and fully separated flows for ramp angles between θw = 5° to 24°. A grid independence study has been carried out to estimate the sensitivity of heat flux and skin friction in the strong interaction regions of the flow. The investigation was carried out assuming the flow to be laminar throughout and high temperature effects such as thermal and chemical nonequilibrium are studied using Park’s two temperature model with finite rate chemistry. A critical comparison has been made with existing steady state computational and experimental data and the study has highlighted the importance of high temperature effects on the flow separation and reattachment.

Great attention is focused on the development of both remotely controlled and unmanned flying vehicles. As a matter of fact, the design of such vehicles is a topical direction of development for modern aeronautics. Among such promising flying vehicles, micro- and mini-UAVs play a leading role. The present paper proposes a method to validate the inclusion of the relevant modelling elements in a comprehensive simulation tool reproducing some of the flight phases of a mini-UAV. The energy balance budget and the dynamic response of the aircraft during the automatic flight are investigated, assessing the impact of autopilot configuration, such as altitude-airspeed holding modes and suggesting a setting guideline for flight mode selection compatible with the features of commercial autopilots.

This paper assesses the feasibility of the Adaptive Torsion Wing (ATW) concept to replace conventional ailerons and enhance the manoeuvrability of a MALE UAV. The ATW concept is a thin-walled closed section two-spar wingbox whose torsional stiffness can be adjusted through the chord-wise position of the front and rear spar webs. The reduction in torsional stiffness allows external aerodynamic loads to induce aeroelastic twist that can be used as a function of the flight conditions to obtain a desired roll control authority. Modelling of the concept was performed using a conceptual design tool developed in MATLABTM. The variation of structural figures of merit are evaluated and discussed. Finally, an MDO study was performed to have in-depth assessments of the potential benefits of the ATW in replacing ailerons and providing sufficient roll control.

This paper describes a simulation technique that has been developed to quantify the unsteady forces and moments that are imposed onto a maritime helicopter by a ship’s airwake during a deck landing. An unsteady CFD-generated airwake, created using a CAD model of the ship, is integrated with a flight dynamics model of a helicopter. By holding the helicopter at a fixed position in the airwake it is possible to quantify the unsteady forces and moments imposed on the aircraft. The technique is therefore a software-based airwake dynamometer, and has been called the virtual AirDyn. As well as determining the mean loads, from consideration of the unsteady loads in the closed-loop pilot response frequency range of 0·2-2Hz it is also possible to quantify the magnitude of the unsteady disturbance in each axis. The loads are also indicators of the control activity the pilot would have to exert to maintain aircraft position and attitude. By placing the virtual AirDyn at different positions around the landing deck in different wind conditions, it is able to quantify the effect of the airwake on the mean and unsteady loads. The quantified loads can be explained by examining the CFD-generated flow field, and the geometric features on the ship’s superstructure that gave rise to them can be identified. The virtual AirDyn is therefore a tool that can be used to evaluate and inform ship design for maritime helicopter operations.

The in-plane crushing and energy absorption of sandwiched honeycomb cores with facesheets are examined through finite element simulations. Assuming no debonding between the facesheet and honeycomb core (which would be the case if manufacturing techniques such as brazing are used to produce very strong bonds between the facesheeet and the core), intracellular buckling mode for thin facesheets, and wrinkling mode for thick facesheets are observed. In the dimpling mode, deformation is governed by the core, honeycomb vertical cell walls do not deform, and the inclined wall deformation does not vary through the cell depth. In the wrinkling mode, deformation is governed by the facesheet, the vertical cell walls deform significantly, and the inclined cell wall deformation varies through the cell depth. Increasing cell angle increased Specific Energy Absorption (SEA) for honeycombs with thin facesheets. Decreasing vertical cell wall length increased SEA for honeycombs with thick facesheets. Increasing wall thickness and decreasing core depth increased SEA for honeycombs with thin and thick facesheets. With geometric changes, SEA increased ~3 times over the baseline configurations. For a given keel beam dimensions, using fewer rows of larger cells reduces the effective non-dimensional core-depth, thereby increasing the effect of the facesheet and the SEA significantly. The SEA of sandwiched honeycombs with facesheets in in-plane crushing appears to be competitive with, or better than, SEA honeycombs in out-of-plane crushing.

The paper revisits some of the well-known models in the mechanics of structurally heterogeneous media for the purpose of analysing their suitability to describe properties of nanocomposites and their mechanical behaviour. It also presents a new multi-component model for predicting the mechanical properties of micro- and nanocomposites reinforced either by whiskerising the microfibres or by bristlising the nanowires. The mathematical formulation of the model is based on using the Muskhelishvili complex potentials for each domain occupied by a separate component. As an example, the effective elastic constants are computed for fibrous composites with four different densities of whiskerisation. It is shown that the increase in the number of bristles per unit surface of the fibres gives a very strong rise to the value of Young’s modulus. However, the shear modulus, being the driving parameter for the strength estimation of the entire composition, is less sensitive to this factor.

An experimental investigation was carried out to study the flow development of a jet issuing from a 2:1 rectangular nozzle with mixing tabs using two-component hotwire anemometry. A pair of tabs of trapezoidal configuration (with 2% total blockage area) is placed on the minor-axis side of the rectangular nozzle and tested for two tab inclination angles of 135° and 45°, with respect to the flow direction. Tests were conducted for a nominal jet exit velocity of 20m/sec corresponding to a Reynolds number based on nozzle equivalent diameter of 5·013 × 104. Relative to the plain jet, the jet with tabs show significant reduction in jet-core length (by 67%) followed by a faster decay in jet centreline velocity (U/Ue). This is also accompanied by a significant upstream shift in peak centreline turbulence intensity (u’/Ue). The presence of tabs is observed to inhibit the jet growth along the minor-axis plane thereby introducing large distortion in the jet cross-sectional development that ultimately leads to jet-core bifurcation along its major-axis. While a mushroom-like flow structure develops behind the tab with 135° inclination, the flow structure behind a 45° inclined tab rather takes the shape of the tab itself. The former flow development is seen to enhance the jet growth more along the minor-axis while the latter improves the jet growth more along the major-axis plane. From application point of view, since both tab inclinations result in more or less similar jet characteristics, a 135° inclined tab would be preferable over a 45° inclined tab from the view of improved jet mixing.

The short take-off capability is of paramount importance for a fighter airplane to enable its operation from short and damaged runways. This paper analyses the airplane take-off process from the viewpoint of reducing the ground roll/take-off distance with the use of thrust vectoring. The airplane take-off is modelled incorporating the ground reactions on the landing gear and the thrust vector forces and moments. The take-off problem is formulated as an optimal control problem with appropriate constraints. Though many researchers have applied optimal control techniques for designing airplane manoeuvres, its application to the airplane take-off problem is rarely available in the open literature. It is expedient to use such methodology to understand the use of thrust vectoring features of an aircraft to maximise the benefits in shortening the ground roll/take-off distance. An optimal control methodology has been applied in this paper with the objectives stated above to a twin-engine fighter nonlinear aircraft model popularly known as F-18/HARV. Computation of flight path and control schedules using optimal control has been carried out with and without the use of vector nozzles. A reduction of about 6% in take-off distance and about 29% in ground roll distance is obtained with the use of thrust vector for the configuration studied.

The authors have recent experience of the specification, procurement, customisation and operation of advanced air traffic control simulator systems. This paper summarises the specification of the software and hardware components of air traffic control simulators within a framework of user needs and advances in simulation technology. Both the required conventional characteristics and the desired innovative features which can accommodate future requirements are defined using taxonomy within this framework. Considering the high investments and challenges involved in the acquisition and operation of modern simulators, the proposed classifications and approaches will provide important benefits to users when selecting or renovating their systems.

Gas-kinetic theory is also valid in the continuum regime: the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations can be obtained as projection of the Boltzmann equation on to the physical space (x,t). The numerical schemes derived from gas-kinetic theory are computationally more expensive than Navier-Stokes based ones, but offer advantages which have been attracting a growing level of attention: they can (i) accommodate discontinuities at cells interface, (ii) provide high-resolution fluxes, (iii) provide advantages in the simulation of turbulence, (iv) handle hypersonic and/or rarefied flows. This study extends the validation of gas-kinetic schemes investigating a few turbulent flow cases. At a slightly higher computational cost, gas-kinetic schemes provide results comparable to those obtained with well-validated Navier-Stokes schemes using the same turbulence model, grid and reconstruction order. In the case of shock-separated flows, the results obtained with the gas-kinetic scheme are even closer to experimental data. These findings are consistent with the idea that gas-kinetic theory is a physically more consistent framework for investigating the mechanics of fluids.

The use of aerospikes at the nose of a hypersonic vehicle can substantially reduce its drag; however, the associated heat flux at the reattachment point is very high for turbulent flows. In this paper, the aerothermodynamics of a generic projectile model represented by a hemisphere- cylinder, fitted axisymmetrically with an aerospike at the nose is investigated numerically with a commercially available Navier Stokes Solver. The base model is a hemisphere-cylinder with a diameter of 40mm and an overall length of 70mm. An aerospike protrudes axisymmetrically at the nose of the base model and has a hemispherical cap from which another aerospike protrudes which again has a hemispherical cap, thus forming a double-disk aerospike. Compressible, axisymmetric Navier-Stokes Equations are solved for turbulent hypersonic flow of thermally perfect air with free stream conditions of Mach No 6·2 at standard sea level atmospheric conditions. The results for the model with double-disk aerospikes are compared with those of hemisphere-cylinder without aerospike. The results suggest that the use of double-disk aerospike can favourably reduce the turbulent reattachment heat flux along with suitable drag reduction of the main body.

In some space applications, such as satellite surveillance and communication, a spacecraft must perform accurate pointing and slewing manoeuvres, whereby the spacecraft is rotated along a large angle amplitude trajectory. In many circumstances it is also required that the sensitive payload does not intercept bright objects such as the Sun, Earth and Moon, to avoid possible damage to the optical instruments. The importance of this subject has stimulated an active research, and different approaches have been reported in the literature(1-5).

In this paper a single camera vision guidance system for fixed wing UAV is developed. This system searches for and identifies a target object with known colour and shape from images captured by an onboard camera. HSV colour space and moment invariants are utilised to describe the colour and shape features of the target object. Position, area and rotation angle of the target object in the image plane are collected. This information is then processed by the Extended Kalman Filter to estimate the relative positions and attitudes of the UAV. The vision guidance system guides the UAV towards the target object automatically based on these estimated states by using a proportional controller. A Senior Telemaster aircraft model kit installed with an onboard camera and computer is used for flight test. The target object for the flight test is a white flag with a red cross. Flight simulations and flight tests results are presented in this paper, showing that the vision guidance system can recognise the target object and guide the UAV effectively.

Because of the huge volume and inflated membrane structure of stratosphere airship, the deformation of stratosphere airship is very sensitive to the change of environment conditions such as wind, temperature and so on. The influence of deformation on manipulation and control is very remarkable. So, during the course of building flight dynamic model of the flexible airship, the added-mass matrix of deformation is very important part in the state equations of dynamic models. For obtaining the accurate added-mass matrix of different flexible airship, we proposed an approach that can calculate the added-mass matrix of a flexible airship with arbitrary geometry shape by the panel method. Through the comparison of results of computation and theory for ellipsoid of revolution and the flexible Skyship-500 airship, the proposed method can calculate the added-mass matrix for arbitrary geometric shape very accurately.

In order to investigate the robustness of three dimensional bumps on shock control for natural laminar-flow wings, the impact of transition onset location on the overall performance of the shock control device was studied. For a ramp bump, a moderate ramp start angle θr =4° was found to effectively fix the location of the leading leg of the shock lambda, decreasing chord-wise movement in the main shock position resulting from variations in transition onset location. With increasing transition onset length from xtrans =0% chord to 45% chord, little influence was found regarding the overall performance of the shock control device but a down-stream movement of the secondary leg of the shock lambda in a range about 3% chord was observed. Change in the boundary-layer displacement thickness due to varying transition onset locations was identified as the primary mechanism responsible for this secondary shock leg movement.

In this paper computation of high resolution, compressible condensing/evaporating moist-air flow for a series of two-dimensional internal and external flows is performed. It has been observed that the inflow wetness content can change the aerothermodynamics of the flow field, e.g. the shock angles. In the case of flow expansion through nozzles, it has also been observed that the content of wetness at nozzles exit in the case of moist-air is more than five times higher than that of pure steam under similar operating conditions. The reason is due to the internal flow of heat from steam portion toward air that accelerates the steam condensation rate. The solver is spatially third- and temporally second-order accurate. Validations of the numerical code are performed versus the experimental data of Moore et al (1973) in the case of very large humidity ratio, ω→∞ (pure steam). Also in the case of low humidity ratio, ω→0 (dry air), the exact solution of shock tube and wedge cases are used to validate our numerical results.

Conventional commercial aircraft fuselages use all-aluminium semi-monocoque structures where the skin carries the external loads, the internal fuselage pressurisation and is strengthen using frames and stringers. Environmental and economic issues force aircraft designers to minimise weight and costs to keep air transport competitive and safe. But as metal designs have reached a high degree of perfection, extraordinary weight and cost savings are unlikely in the future. Carbon composite materials combined with lattice structures and the use of topology optimisation have the potential to offer such weight reductions. The EU FP7 project Advanced Lattice Structures for Composite Airframes (ALaSCA) was started to investigate this. This article present some of this research which has now led to the development of a new airframe concept which consists of: a load carrying inner skin; transverse frames; CFRP-metal hybrid stiffeners helically arranged in a grid configuration; insulating foam and an additional aerodynamic outer skin.