Numerical Generation of a Flush Air Data System for the Hypersonic Flight Experiment HIFiRE 7

Abstract

Obtaining accurate airdata estimates is a key requirement for the design of vehicle control systems. For hypersonic vehicles the techniques used in conven-tional aircraft (i.e. measurements via booms protruding past the local flow) are not acceptable. Flush Airdata Sensing systems use non-intrusive surface pressure measurements to infer vehicle position, speed, and orientation. This paper presents the design procedure and preliminary test results for a simplified flush airdata sensing system for the uncontrolled hypersonic flight experiment HIFiRE 7. Main focus is the derivation of a set of equations, which enables to determine angle of attack and sideslip during post-processing, if surface pressures from flight experiments are available.