Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:45:41.549Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The performance and longitudinal stability and control of large receiver aircraft during air to air refuelling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

A. W. Bloy
Affiliation:
Department of EngineeringUniversity of Manchester
V. Trochalidis
Affiliation:
Department of EngineeringUniversity of Manchester

Extract

The aerodynamic interference between typical tanker and large receiver aircraft during air-to-air refuelling was modelled using a simple horseshoe vortex representation of the tanker wake whilst the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the receiver were calculated using the vortex lattice method. For each combination of tanker and receiver, the aerodynamic loads depend mainly on the vertical separation, whilst the receiver tailplane position on the fin strongly effects the pitching moment acting on the receiver due to the tanker downwash. Particular attention was given to a high T-tail receiver aircraft. The predicted increase in the receiver drag compares favourably with available flight test data. Changes in trim in pitch of the receiver were analysed and related to the static stability of the aircraft. Aerodynamic derivatives due to the position and attitude of the receiver aircraft within the tanker downwash field were calculated and solutions of the linearised equations of motion obtained for the high T-tail receiver refuelling from different tanker aircraft at different flight conditions. Typically the receiver exhibited a divergent oscillation at the normal refuelling position. The dynamic stability characteristics are consistent with the trends observed in flight tests on the tendency of the receiver to oscillate in pitch.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1989 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Bloy, A. W., Lamont, P. J., Abu-Assaf, H. A. and Ali, K. A. M. The lateral dynamic stability and control of a large receiver aircraft during air-to-air refuelling. Aeronaut J, June-July 1986, 90, pp237243.Google Scholar
2. Bloy, A. W., Ali, K. A. M. and Trochalidis, V. The longitudinal dynamic stability and control of a large receiver aircraft during air-to-air refuelling, Aeronaut J, Feb. 1987, 91, pp6471.Google Scholar
3. Bradley, J. The handling and performance trials needed to clear an aircraft to act as a receiver during air-to-air refuelling, AGARD Conference Proceedings No. 373, Flight Test Techniques, July 1984, Paper 9.Google Scholar
4. Hoganson, E. H. A study of aerodynamic interference effects during aerial refuelling, M. S. Thesis, AD-A136895, Air Force Inst, of Tech., Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Dec. 1983.Google Scholar
5. Iverson, J. D. and Bernstein, S. Trailing vortex effects on following aircraft. J Aircr, 1974, 11, 6061.Google Scholar
6. Iverson, J. D. and Bernstein, S. Dynamic Simulation of an aircraft under the Effect of Vortex Wake Turbulence, Annates de l’Association pour le Calcul Analogique, Vol. 14, 1972, pp136144.Google Scholar
7. Margason, R. J. and Lamar, J. E. Vortex-Lattice Fortran Program for Estimating Subsonic Aerodynamic Characteristics of Complex Platforms, NASA TN D-6142, Feb. 1971.Google Scholar