Examination of FlightStream for Proximity Flight with Stores

Abstract

The goal of the following work was to validate and demonstrate the capability of the FlightStream solver to model proximity flight. To this end, wind tunnel proximity data for a MK-82SE bomb released from an F-16 was used as a point of comparison. Models of the aircraft and store were generated using NASA Open Vehicle Sketch Pad and exported as .STL files to FlightStream. FlightStream was then used to validate the models, to generate solutions for the scenario described in the wind tunnel tests, and to measure the aerodynamic coefficients in a plane near the aircraft. Comparisons have been provided both for the validation of the models and the replication of wind tunnel results. This thesis shows the utility of FlightStream for modeling proximity flight data with good fidelity in most scenarios.