Aerooptical Design of a Long-Range Oblique Photography Pod

In recent years, the long-range oblique photography (LOROP) technique has become a preferred technique for aerial photography. The LOROP technique provides a safer mission e ight proe le for medium- and highaltitude photography. Most of the LOROP cameras are designed for pod applications and not for internal aircraft installation.Thetechniquerequiresthattheopticalwindowswouldresideone atplanesonthesidesofthecontaining pod. Consequently, performance of the LOROP camera strongly depends on the quality of the e ow around the windows. Furthermore, issues of aerooptical qualities of the e ow must be taken into account in the design of the pod geometry. The aerooptical design process of the LOROP pod is described. The design was conducted using computational e uid dynamics methods. Results from wind-tunnel experiments and a photograph taken by the camera during a supersonic e ight are presented to validate the numerical simulations results.