EMERGENCY CONTROL OF BOUNDARY LAYER ON AIRCRAFT WINGS BY PROPELLANT ENERGY

Operating with the demonstrated and proven state-of-the-art of boundary layer phenomenon as related to airfoils, this project studies two objectives: the uses of safely stored propellant energy instantly released and directed through ducting, ejectors, and/or other means, to appropriately located apertures on the airfoil surfaces; and the reattachment of the circulation flow through ballistic-combustion-powered boundary layer control of the airflow over and around stalled airfoil test models. The preliminary research efforts were directed toward the study of acquisition of time interval data and was accomplished by recording and measuring the time interval required for decay of circulation flow with the breakdown of lift in stall, and the measurement of time for the reattachment of circulation flow in the restoration of lift. The expenditures of energy involved for restoration of circulation flow were also recorded and measured. These values of transient energy were subsequently utilized in computations to determine the propellant energy requirements for full scale application of these emergency boundary layer control concepts on the U. S. Army Caribou airplane.