Development of a flush airdata sensing system on a sharp-nosed vehicle for flight at Mach 3 to 8

Nomenclature NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has developeda flush airdata sensing (FADS) system on a sharp-nosed,wedge-shaped vehicle. This paper details the design andcalibration of a real-time angle-of-attack estimationscheme developed to meet the onboard airdatameasurement requirements for a research vehicleequipped with a supersonic-combustion ramjet engine.The FADS system has been designed to perform inflights at Mach 3-8 and at _°-12° angle of attack. Thedescription of the FADS architecture includes portlayout, pneumatic design, and hardware integration.Predictive models of static and dynamic performanceare compared with wind-tunnel results across the Machand angle-of-attack range. Results indicate that staticangle-of-attack accuracy and pneumatic lag can beadequately characterized and incorporated into a real-time algorithm. *Aerospace Engineer.+Aerospace Engineer, Senior Member._:Engineering Consultant, Senior Member.§Aerospace Engineer.¢11Instrumentation and Controls Engineer.# Instrumentation Engineer.Copyright © 2000 by the American Institute of Aeronautics andAstronautics, Inc. No copyright is asserted in the United States underTitle 17, U.S. Code. The U.S. Government has a royalty-free licenseto exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for Govern-mental purposes. All other rights are reserved by the copyright owner.