A Study of a Mobile Launch Platform Effect on Bi-folded Wing Deployment

This study considers a mobile platform effect on a bifolded wing deployment. An additional velocity induced by a mobile launch platform was applied. Therefore, aerodynamic moments on a deploying bi-folded wing were calculated with wind-over-deck velocity, a vector sum of the platform velocity and the wind velocity. In the calculation, the panel method is applied to obtain the moments for quick aerodynamic prediction. Then, wind tunnel tests were conducted to measure the aerodynamic moments. As a result, considering the velocity of the mobile launch platform as a vector quantity provides more realistic and reasonable aerodynamic moments for the design criteria of deploying devices.