Wind-tunnel investigation at supersonic speeds of a canard-controlled missile with fixed and free-rolling tail fins

A wind tunnel investigation was made at free stream Mach numbers from 1.70 to 2.86 to determine the effects of fixed and free rolling tail fin afterbodies on the static longitudinal and lateral aerodynamic characteristics of a cruciform canard controlled missile model. The effect of small canard roll and yaw control deflections was also examined. The results indicate that the fixed and free rolling tail configurations have about the same lift curve slope and longitudinal stability level at low angles of attack. For the free rolling tail configuration, the canards provide conventional roll control with no roll control reversal at low angles of attack. The free rolling tail configuration reduced induced roll due to model roll angle and canard yaw control.