A novel lightweight aerodynamic design for the wings of hypersonic vehicles cruising in the upper atmosphere

Abstract

Base on the concept of molecular mean free paths in high-altitude rarefied aerodynamics, a novel conceptual lightweight design is proposed and applied to the aerodynamic design of wings of hypersonic vehicles cruising in the upper atmosphere between 120 km to 300 km. The lightweight scheme proposed here is promising in hypersonic vehicles cruising in the upper atmosphere in the sense that it is able to not only reduce the weight of a wing by about 14%, but also save the material by the same amount. A comprehensive aerodynamic analysis indicates that the lightweight aerodynamic design can apply to a wide range of cruising altitudes and Mach numbers. In comparison with the conventional flat-plate wing, the lightweight wing always has smaller drags and larger effective lift-to-drag ratios, proving the feasibility of lightweight design for hypersonic vehicles at high altitudes. Moreover, as the cruising altitude is increased, the lightweight wing has even better lift and lift-to-drag-ratio performances, further demonstrating the excellent promise of lightweight wings for hypersonic vehicles cruising in the upper atmosphere. This lightweight design concept is of great value because the region of the upper atmosphere is relatively unexplored, and hypersonic vehicles cruising in this region can be used for high-resolution earth surveillance, accurate gravity/magnetic field mapping, and global ocean climate exploring.