Alleviation of the subsonic pitch-up of delta wings

A 'pylon vortex generator' concept has been proposed for alleviating the subsonic pitch-up instability of highly swept supersonic-cruise wings. Fixed at a part-span location, this leading-edge device utilizes the lateral velocity component in the flow approaching the swept leading edge to generate a streamwise vortex, opposite in sense to the tip vortex. The vortex-induced downwash outboard of the device serves to control the leading-edge stall development in the wing-tip regions. Wind-tunnel results on 60-deg and 74-deg flat-plate delta wings are presented to illustrate the operation of the pylon vortex generator in modifying the spanwise leading-edge separation characteristics resulting in effective alleviation of the pitch-up.