Numerical Generation of a Flush Air Data System for the Hypersonic Flight Experiment HIFiRE 7

Obtaining accurate airdata estimates is a key requirement for the design of vehicle control systems. For hypersonic vehicles the techniques used in conventional aircraft (i.e. measurements via booms protruding past the local flow) are not acceptable. Flush Airdata Sensing systems use non-intrusive surface pressure measurements to infer vehicle position, speed, and orientation. This paper presents the design procedure and preliminary test results for a simplified flush airdata sensing system for the uncontrolled hypersonic flight experiment HIFiRE 7. Main focus is the derivation of a set of equations, which enables to determine angle of attack and sideslip during post-processing, if surface pressures from flight experiments are available.