Lateral aerodynamic interference between tanker and receiver in air-to-air refueling

Numerical Simulation of the Aerodynamic Influence of Aircrafts During Aerial Refueling with Engine Jet

“…In 1975, Jewell and Stapleford [10] and Rossow et al [18] proposed a mathematical model to describe the effect of wake. Modeling and analysis of the effect of a tanker's wake on a receiver aircraft were pioneered by Bloy et al [1][2][3][4][5], and the results obtained were in good agreement with the wind tunnel experimental data. Venkataramanan and Dogan [7] developed the Vortex Effect Modeling Technique (VEMT) to simulate the flow field of aerial refueling.…”

Limit cycle characterization of an aeroelastic wing in a bluff body wake

“…Unsteady wing-wake interaction research has undergone profound growth in recent years as researchers utilize knowledge of wake impingement to develop new multi-vehicle flight formations, design novel micro-air vehicles [26], and leverage inspirations from biological swimmers and flyers [13]. Examples of such interactions include close formation flight [2], wake-induced flutter [5,23,12], aerial refueling [3], and fish schooling dynamics [21]. Although diverse in applications, the fundamental thread through this area of research is the characterization of interactions between unsteady wakes and lifting bodies.…”

Dynamics and control of different aircraft formation structures

“…It is believed that aircraft formation control will play a fundamental role in future aerospace scenarios, where unmanned air vehicles will be required to manoeuvre in swarms for surveillance, reconnaissance and rescue purposes in hostile environments (2) . Finally, autonomous formation flight systems are widely investigated due to their close connection to the aerial refuelling problem (3,4) . Most of the existing literature concerning the problem of aircraft formation control (5)(6)(7)(8)(9) and/or aerodynamic interference modelling (10)(11)(12) , assumes a fixed formation structure.…”