Boundary Layer Turbulence Flight Experiment in Memory of Mike Holden: Vehicle Design, Instrumentation, and Ground Test Results

Abstract

Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) funded the Boundary Layer Turbulence Flight (BOLT-II) Experiment in Memory of Mike Holden to better understand and quantify natural and forced boundary-layer transition and turbulence in hypersonic flight regimes for a complex, three-dimensional geometry. Texas A&M University and CUBRC led the mission and vehicle design along with critical support from AFRL and NASA. The experimental flight launched from NASA Wallops on a two-stage suborbital sounding rocket on March 21st, 2022. A detailed overview of the vehicle design, over 400 instrumentation channels, and integration work is presented in this paper. Additionally, this is the first known time that a full-scale hypersonic flight vehicle has been tested in a wind-tunnel prior to flight. The flight computers and key instruments worked and responded well during the short ground-test campaign and detailed results are reported here.