The Flight Dynamics of the HIFiRE Flight 6 Research Vehicle

The HIFiRE 6 flight research vehicle aerodynamics and stability and control are discussed in this paper. We show that the aerodynamics exhibit a strong Mach number dependence. This is primarily due to the mass capture and starting characteristics of the inlet and the interaction of the spill flow with the external flow field. Aerodynamic data derived from inviscid and viscous computational fluid dynamics codes are compared with wind tunnel data and show, for the most part, good agreement. Literal approximations for the short-period and the lateral-direction modes are derived that take advantage of unique flight dynamics of hypersonic vehicles. The stability characteristics for the flight research vehicle are then presented, along with a discussion of the inertial roll coupling characteristics of the vehicle.