Abstract
Angular velocity plays a critical role in determining the outcome of a close-range aerial engagement between two identical fighter aircraft pitching at full deflection. In a zero gravity environment, a pursuer may exploit its ability to roll to increase its relative angular velocity against a pitching opponent. In this paper, we present a repeatable maneuver for an unmanned fighter aircraft that increases its relative angular velocity. Additionally, we provide maneuvers for aligning an aircraft’s trajectory with a desired target trajectory.
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Abbreviations
- t :
-
Time (s)
- p :
-
The roll rate of our aircraft (rad/s)
- q :
-
The pitch rate of our aircraft (rad/s)
- y :
-
The amount of pitch rate we give up (instantaneously) at the start of our advantage maneuver (rad/s)
- m :
-
Mass of our aircraft (kg)
- v :
-
Speed of our aircraft (m/s)
- \(v_\mathrm{f}\) :
-
Speed of air hitting the wing in the normal direction, caused by rolling (m/s)
- r :
-
Radius of our turn circle (m)
- \(F_\mathrm{c}\) :
-
Centripetal force (lift) acting on our aircraft (\(\hbox {kg}\,\hbox {ms}^{-2}\))
- I :
-
Moment of inertia of our aircraft about the roll axis (\(\hbox {kg}\,\hbox {m}^2\))
- \(\tau \) :
-
Torque generated from wings (N m/rad)
- W :
-
Wingspan of our aircraft (m)
- \(W_\mathrm{d}\) :
-
Width of a wing. Used to approximate drag (m)
- \(C_\mathrm{d}\) :
-
Drag coefficient of our aircraft about the roll axis (dimensionless)
- \(C_{\tau }\) :
-
Drag coefficient of torque drag from rolling the aircraft (dimensionless)
- \(\rho \) :
-
Air density (\(\hbox {kg}\,\hbox {m}^{-3}\))
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Deng, B., Collier, T. Increasing relative angular velocity for air combat in zero gravity. AS 2, 83–95 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42401-019-00030-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42401-019-00030-0