Longitudinal and lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics of a wing-cone configuration at Mach numbers from 2.5 to 4.5

A study was conducted to determine the longitudinal and lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics of a generic wing-cone configuration at supersonic speeds. The fuselage has a 5 deg half-angle cone forebody, cylindrical midbody, and a 9 deg truncated cone afterbody. The delta wing (aspect ratio 1.0) had a 4 pct. thick diamond airfoil section. The tests were made in the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at Mach numbers from 2.50 and 4.50. Angle of attack was varied from -4 to 28 degs, and angle of sideslip varied from -8 to 8 degs. Several configurations were studied to determine the effects of variations in wing longitudinal position, wing incidence, vertical tail configuration, canard shape, and nose bluntness. Typical effects of Reynolds number and Mach number on the longitudinal characteristics were observed. The incremental effects of the configuration variables were generally unaffected by Mach number. The directional stability characteristics of the large and small centerline mounted vertical tail configurations were significantly degraded with increasing angle of attack and Mach number.