26 research outputs found
Integrated Computational/Experimental Approach to Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle Stability and Control Estimation
A comprehensive research program designed to investigate the ability of computational methods to predict
stability and control characteristics of a generic unmanned combat air vehicle has been undertaken. The integrated
approach to simulating static and dynamic stability characteristics was performed by the NATO Research and
Technology Organization Task Group AVT-161. The vehicle named Stability and Control CONfiguration
(SACCON) was the subject of an intensive computational and experimental study. The stability characteristics of the
vehicle were evaluated via a highly integrated approach, where computational fluid dynamics and experimental
results were used in a parallel and collaborative fashion. The results show that computational methods have made
great strides in predicting static and dynamic stability characteristics, but several key issues need to be resolved
before efficient, affordable, and reliable predictions are available