All-moving wing-tip controls at subsonic, sonic and supersonic speeds a discussion of available theoretical methods and their application to a delta wing with half-delta controls

Abstract

Methods are now available to calculate throughout the speed range the performance of all-moving wing-tip controls on flat-plate wings in inviscid flow, neglecting the shock waves in the transonic regime. The theory, with all its limitations, seems likely to predict in broad outline the main features of this type of control, and should therefore be useful to designers who have hesitated to consider its adoption because of the lack on the one hand of experimental data and on the other of a reasonable analytical approach to the aerodynamics of the problem. In this report, therefore, the theory has been developed and assembled in such a way as to be directly applicable to plan-forms, the spanwise sections of which consist of one segment only, and the case of half-delta controls on the tips of delta wings has been studied in some detail. Much of the theory applies also to plan-forms the spanwise sections of which consist, in part, of two or more segments, such as the swallow tail. A numerical illustration for half-delta controls on a 60-deg delta wing has been used to compare with free-flight transonic measurements of rolling moment and hinge moment. The agreement is as good as could be expected.