Aerodynamic Analysis of a Supersonic Transport Aircraft at Landing Speed Conditions

Abstract

Supersonic flight for commercial aviation is gaining a renewed interest, especially for business aviation, which demands the reduction of flight times for transcontinental routes. So far, the promise of civil supersonic flight has only been afforded by the Concorde and Tupolev T-144 aircraft. However, little or nothing can be found about the aerodynamics of these aeroshapes, the knowledge of which is extremely interesting to obtain before the development of the next-generation high-speed aircraft. Therefore, the present research effort aimed at filling in the lack of data on a Concorde-like aeroshape by focusing on evaluating the aerodynamics of a complete aircraft configuration under low-speed conditions, close to those of the approach and landing phase. In this framework, the present paper focuses on the CFD study of the longitudinal aerodynamics of a Concorde-like, tailless, delta-ogee wing seamlessly integrated onto a Sears–Haack body fuselage, suitable for civil transportation. The drag polar at a Mach number equal to 0.24 at a 30 m altitude was computed for a wide range of angles of attack (0∘,60∘), with a steady RANS simulation to provide the feedback of the aerodynamic behaviour post breakdown, useful for a preliminary design. The vortex-lift contribution to the aerodynamic coefficients was accounted for in the longitudinal flight condition. The results were in agreement with the analytical theory of the delta-wing. Flowfield sensitivity to the angle of attack at near-stall and post-stall flight attitudes confirmed the literature results. Furthermore, the longitudinal static stability was addressed. The CFD simulation also evidenced a static instability condition arising for 15∘≤α≤20∘ due to vortex breakdown, which was accounted for.