Wind Tunnel Experiments of the CALLISTO VTVL Launcher in the TMK and HST Wind Tunnels

Abstract

CALLISTO is a demonstrator for a first stage of a reusable vertical take-off, vertical landing rocket and is developed and build within a collaboration of DLR, CNES and JAXA [1]. DLR is leading the aero science team [2] and is in charge of the aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic characterization of the vehicle. Within this task, experimental work has been carried out at two different wind tunnels on two different models in order to determine the aerodynamic coefficients and uncertainties for the AErodynamic Data Base (AEDB) of the vehicle with focus on the descent flight configuration. First data was obtained in the Trisonic Wind Tunnel (TMK) at the DLR Department of Supersonic- and Hypersonic Flow Technologies in Cologne for a 1:35 model in a Mach number range from 0.5 up to 2.0. The second dataset was generated in the transonic wind tunnel (HST) of the DNW in Amsterdam for a 1:10 model in a Mach number range of 0.2 up to 1.3. Within this paper, the data from the two aforementioned facilities is compared with wind tunnel data of a simplified CALLISTO model [3,4,5] and the data [2] generated by numerical simulations. The results showed good agreement between the different facilities and datasets and was used to verify and improve the AEDB, especially in terms of uncertainties.