System design and characteristics analysis of a variable-sweep and variable-span wing-body

In order to investigate the key technological issues concerning the aerodynamics, structure and control of morphing flight vehicles, a system design and characteristics analysis on a wind tunnel model of a variable-sweep-and-span morphing wing-body is conducted. The system design include the overall design, approximate theoretical analysis, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation as well as the integration of structure and control technologies; the characteristics analysis include the test and analysis of structural and control characteristics as well as the test and analysis of steady and unsteady aerodynamic characteristics. The results demonstrate that large scale morphing can considerably change the aerodynamic characteristics of a flight vehicle, such as its lift, drag and lift-to-drag ratio, etc., which can enable the adaptation of morphing flight vehicles in multi-environments and multi-missions, and ultimately lead to better performance for morphing flight vehicles in comparison with conventional fixed-configuration flight vehicles.