Flight Simulation of a Hybrid Projectile to Estimate the Impact of Launch Angle on Range Extension

Abstract

A Hybrid Projectile (HP) currently under design at West Virginia University was simulated to estimate the effects of barrel launch angle and flight position of wing deployment. The projectile is similar to a standard 60mm mortar, except that is has been equipped to achieve extended range. A Simulink model was developed based upon external ballistics. The flight performance of the WVU-HP-60 was compared to a standard M720 60mm mortar. The developed HP was considered to be a tube-launched UAV, that transforms, not directly after launch but sometime after for optimal gliding, and must be modeled with different flight profiles because after transformation the aerodynamics drastically change. Two models of the UAV were created to allow for design of controllers. They were the launch model and the projectile flight model. It was found that the projectile may exit the barrel with a two degree variation of launch angle. The simulations show that range extension is still viable, with this barrel exit variation, to within 10% of the maximum achievable range. A confidence area was also developed to determine how far the launch angle and wing deployment position could stray and still maintain a significant amount of range extension.

Flight Phases With Tests of a Projectile-Drone Hybrid System

“…The contribution of the axial force is weighted by the coefficient ζ(V ∞ , low ), ranging from 0 to 1. The relation (9) expresses the value of this coefficient for a good correlation with the experiments…”

Non-linear anti-jamming trajectory tracking control of gun-launched miniature quadrotor UAV

“…As early as 2008, it has published literature on the intelligent systems of projectiles, unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), and MAVs [3,4] . Most of these system research involving intelligent hybrid projectiles or drones/MAV belongs to extended ammunition, such as [5], [6]. These systems can quickly reach the designated place, but they do not have a hovering function and cannot be used to perform multiple flight tasks.…”

Research on Speed Scheme for Precise Attack of Miniature Loitering Munition

“…A loitering munition (LM), as a new member of the precisionguided munitions [1][2][3][4][5], fits in the niche between cruise missiles and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) sharing characteristics with both. In the cruise section, the LM mainly conducts flight and mission target search in the form of a UAV, but in the launch section and the final guidanceattacking section, the LM works as a missile [5][6][7]. After launch, the original folded wings are unfolded, and the aircraft is converted from projectile form to drone form, and the configuration of the loitering munitions does not change again after the conversion of the machine finished [1,[8][9][10].…”