Experimental and theoretical study of the effects of wing geometry on a supersonic multibody configuration

An experimental and theoretical investigation of planform effects on a low-fineness ratio multibody configuration was conducted in NASA-Langley Research Center's Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at Mach number of 1.6, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.16. Experimental and theoretical values of lift, drag, and pitching moment as well as surface pressures were obtained on several configurations which varied in both outboard-wing panel and inboard-wing panel planforms. The three outboard-wing panels were a 65 -deg delta and two trapezoidal wing planforms. An unswept and a 60-deg swept inboard-wing panels were also tested. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of wing planform on the supersonic aerodynamics. The large trapezoidal wing provided increased performance over the small trapezoidal wing primarily due to a reduction in the zero-lift drag coefficient. The swept inboard-wing panel planforms provided a slightly higher L/D than the unswept inboard-wing panel due to a minimal improvement in zero-lift drag. Linear-theory aerodynamic codes were used to analyze the effect of planform on the supersonic aerodynamics and were found to generally produce adequate results.