High Angle of Attack Missile Aerodynamics

Abstract

A major influence in the aerodynamics of missiles is the significant amount of separated flow encountered for most flight conditions. This flow may be of an ordered nature, forming vortices, or random, such as encountered in wing stall. At high angles of attack the vortices of the body leeside flow may become unpredictably asymmetric, even on geometrically symmetric configurations, and their interactions with wing and tail panels can result in possible control problems. The modelling of such flows both accurately and easily is beyond present capabilities.