Flight Behavior of an Asymmetric Missile Through Advanced Characterization Techniques

The maneuvers required for guided flight are often obtained through inducing aerodynamic asymmetries. The goal of this study is better understanding of the behavior of asymmetric flight bodies for enhanced control authority and more accurate aerodynamic characterization to improve guidance algorithm design and component (for example, actuator and feedback sensor) selection. The configuration considered is a missile featuring a pair of canards representative of a class of rolling airframes with a single plane of actuating control surfaces. Free-flight experiments are conducted on this body, which demonstrates a means of collecting high-quality experimental data on guided airframes using roll–yaw resonance. Characterization of the asymmetric aerodynamics are obtained from spark range and computational fluid dynamics techniques. Aerodynamic coefficients compare favorably between spark range, computational fluid dynamics, and onboard sensor techniques. Experiments also validate linearized theory of the amplification factor due to roll–yaw resonance. Lastly, the aerodynamic uncertainty quantified during this study enables the maneuverability design margin to be assessed for asymmetric, rolling airframes.