Abstract
This article belongs to a series of publications on the design and assessment of the MULDICON UCAV configuration. MULDICON is a 53° swept flying wing combat aircraft concept, investigated in a common effort between the DLR research project Mephisto and the NATO STO Research Task Group AVT-251. This article focuses on the development of the overall concept starting from its predecessor, the SACCON configuration, and the requirements which had been defined for the MULDICON design task. A second focus is placed on the investigation of the vortex-dominated flow topology arising around such a configuration and its sensitivity to specific geometric changes. Furthermore, the article briefly introduces the DLR conceptual aircraft design system and the extensions which have been developed for improving its capabilities for UCAV assessment. Finally, an industrial view on the MULDICON design task is provided, as well as a conclusion of the Mephisto results and an outlook upon further work.
Highlights
The design of agile and highly swept flying wing UCAV configurations is a challenging task: The assessment of performance and maneuverability requirements, which are essential design drivers for the overall concept, demands for rather detailed data concerning mass distribution, engine performance, and aerodynamic characteristics for a wide range of flight conditions
This article is focused on the design of the MULDICON configuration, which was performed in close cooperation with the NATO STO task group AVT-251 on “Multi-Disciplinary design and performance assessment of effective, agile NATO Air Vehicles” [2]
A central part of the DLR research project Mephisto was the design of the MULDICON configuration based on its predecessor concept SACCON
Summary
The design of agile and highly swept flying wing UCAV configurations is a challenging task: The assessment of performance and maneuverability requirements, which are essential design drivers for the overall concept, demands for rather detailed data concerning mass distribution, engine performance, and aerodynamic characteristics for a wide range of flight conditions. For the design of agile aircraft configurations where the flow field is dominated by vortex effects triggered from small geometrical details, it is inevitable to use highfidelity, RANS-based aerodynamic methods, as well Such a design case was investigated within the DLR research project Mephisto. This article is focused on the design of the MULDICON configuration, which was performed in close cooperation with the NATO STO task group AVT-251 on “Multi-Disciplinary design and performance assessment of effective, agile NATO Air Vehicles” [2]. It belongs to a series of Mephisto-based publications, covering various aspects of the SACCON redesign task.
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