Overview of the Cranked-Arrow Wing Aerodynamics Project International

This paper provides a brief history of the F-16XL-1 aircraft, its role in the High-Speed Research Program, and how it was morphed into the Cranked-Arrow Wing Aerodynamics Project. Various flight, wind-tunnel, and computational fluid dynamics data sets were generated as part of the project. These unique and open flight data sets for surface pressures, boundary-layer profiles, and skin-friction distributions, along with surface flow data, are described and sample data comparisons are given. This is followed by a description of how the project became internationally known as Cranked-Arrow Wing Aerodynamics Project International and is concluded by an introduction to the results of a four-year computational predictive study of data collected at flight conditions by participating researchers.