TY - GEN
T1 - Performance study of a tapered flying wing with bell-shaped lift distribution
AU - Richter, Jonathan S.
AU - Woodring, Jason B.
AU - Fox, Sophie E.
AU - Agarwal, Ramesh K.
N1 - Funding Information:
The Authors would like to thank several individuals who helped with this paper and made the study of the Biom possible. The authors would like to especially thank Kevin Hainline. Without his hundreds of hours of mentoring and aid, none of this would have been possible. Additionally, the authors would like to thank Austin Stover, Peter Sharpe, Daniel Cherenson, and Dan Heikes for their suggestions and technical expertise as well as the entire WUDBF Team for support. The funding provided to J. Woodring and S. Fox by MO. NASA SpaceGrant is gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Recent advancements in bell-shaped lift distributions have led to the discovery of proverse yaw control authority, which unlocks an additional control mechanism within the lateral-directional control space, reducing stability and control constraints. This led to the design of the “Biom T1,” a straight tapered flying wing without quarter chord sweep or vertical surfaces. Previous research has validated the Biom T1’s stability and control. This research seeks to determine its performance metrics. Classical performance analysis is conducted comparing the Biom design philosophy to state-of-the-art aircraft fulfilling its potential missions: RQ-11, MQ-9, U-2R, and RQ-4. These were selected as they represent a wide range of aircraft scales and have sufficient data available to estimate performance metrics. The analysis compares range, payload capacity, and loiter endurance. Aerodynamic data is sourced from AeroSandbox, an open source non-linear lifting line theory solver. These results are compared to available information for these aircraft, where most present results are within 27.5% of their public counterparts. Initial data predicts that the Biom design performs above in range (r) and loiter endurance (e) compared to the RQ-11 (20.4% r, 20.5% e) MQ-9 (416% r,415% e) and RQ-4 (189.3% r, 1.893% e). and below in payload capacity compared to the MQ-9 and RQ-4. When compared to the U-2R, the Biom performs below in range and endurance due to increased drag (-21.8% r,-23.1% e) in the transonic region, and above in payload capacity. The Biom is comparable in payload capacity to the RQ-11.
AB - Recent advancements in bell-shaped lift distributions have led to the discovery of proverse yaw control authority, which unlocks an additional control mechanism within the lateral-directional control space, reducing stability and control constraints. This led to the design of the “Biom T1,” a straight tapered flying wing without quarter chord sweep or vertical surfaces. Previous research has validated the Biom T1’s stability and control. This research seeks to determine its performance metrics. Classical performance analysis is conducted comparing the Biom design philosophy to state-of-the-art aircraft fulfilling its potential missions: RQ-11, MQ-9, U-2R, and RQ-4. These were selected as they represent a wide range of aircraft scales and have sufficient data available to estimate performance metrics. The analysis compares range, payload capacity, and loiter endurance. Aerodynamic data is sourced from AeroSandbox, an open source non-linear lifting line theory solver. These results are compared to available information for these aircraft, where most present results are within 27.5% of their public counterparts. Initial data predicts that the Biom design performs above in range (r) and loiter endurance (e) compared to the RQ-11 (20.4% r, 20.5% e) MQ-9 (416% r,415% e) and RQ-4 (189.3% r, 1.893% e). and below in payload capacity compared to the MQ-9 and RQ-4. When compared to the U-2R, the Biom performs below in range and endurance due to increased drag (-21.8% r,-23.1% e) in the transonic region, and above in payload capacity. The Biom is comparable in payload capacity to the RQ-11.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100306117&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85100306117
SN - 9781624106095
T3 - AIAA Scitech 2021 Forum
SP - 1
EP - 37
BT - AIAA Scitech 2021 Forum
PB - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
T2 - AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition, AIAA SciTech Forum 2021
Y2 - 11 January 2021 through 15 January 2021
ER -