A method for enhancement of the rolling maneuver of a flexible wing

Abstract

A technique for augmenting the aileron to increase the roll rates of a high-performance aircraft at high dynamic pressures for enhancement of the rolling maneuver is examined. Antisymmetric twist and camber distribution on a realistic flexible wing is determined to counteract the detrimental twisting moment of the aileron rotation to achieve recovery of the lost roll rates at high dynamic pressures. A method for prescribing the antisymmetric wing twist and camber distribution by reversing the twist and camber resulting from use of the aileron only is described. The retwisting and recambering of the wing is achieved by providing control forces obtained from a technique referred to as fictitious control surfaces. The technique of retwisting and recambering a flexible wing demonstrates a full recovery of roll rate at all dynamic pressures. Here, a full-scale realistic wing is considered for the assessment of strain energy as a measure of necessary control energy required to produce the antisymmetric twist and camber deformation on the aileron-twisted wing to recover the lost roll performance.