Drag Esimates for the Joined-Wing Sensor Craft

<p>This research studied the drag effects of the joined-wing sensor craft technology demonstrator being developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Although many performance parameters have been studied and evaluated for this vehicle to date no detailed drag estimates have been conducted for the AFRL configuration. Previous performance parameters of the aircraft have been estimated based solely on a constant lift-to-drag ratio assumption. Using the Air Vehicles Technology Integration Environment created by Dr. Maxwell Blair and supplemented by MATLAB code this study explored three different drag prediction methods to determine accurate estimates of both parasite and induced drag. The Roskam/AVTIE Pan Air method was determined as the best approach to estimate drag by measuring parasite drag effects using XFOIL a respected environment within the aviation industry to accurately predict all viscous drag effects and determined induced drag from Pan Air a creditable software package based on inviscid flowfield solutions about three dimensional objects. This method will be incorporated into a single design environment in conjunction with AVTIE in order to estimate drag and aid future AFRL joined-wing design studies incorporating wing twist aeroelastic effects and other geometric changes to the baseline configuration.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>