22-10-2012, 05:11 PM
Airborne Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration Pressure Measurements with Computational Fluid Dynamics Comparisons
ABSTRACT
The Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration project showed for the first time that by careful design of aircraft contour the
resultant sonic boom can maintain a tailored shape, propagating through a real atmosphere down to ground level. In order to
assess the propagation characteristics of the shaped sonic boom and to validate computational fluid dynamics codes, airborne
measurements were taken of the pressure signatures in the near field by probing with an instrumented F-15B aircraft, and in
the far field by overflying an instrumented L-23 sailplane. This paper describes each aircraft and their instrumentation systems,
the airdata calibration, analysis of the near- and far-field airborne data, and shows the good to excellent agreement between
computational fluid dynamics solutions and flight data. The flights of the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration aircraft occurred
in two phases. Instrumentation problems were encountered during the first phase, and corrections and improvements were
made to the instrumentation system for the second phase, which are documented in the paper. Piloting technique and
observations are also given. These airborne measurements of the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration aircraft are a unique and
important database that will be used to validate design tools for a new generation of quiet supersonic aircraft.