An Chao, Xie Changchuan, Meng Yang, Yang Chao
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: IFASD-2019-083
Multi-body aircraft (MBA) presented in this paper is an air vehicle composed of set of independent aircraft which are connected together by hinge in wing tip to wing tip configuration. This paper has a focus on the flight dynamic behavior of MBA. Specifically, basic flight dynamic modes such as the short period, phugoid, dutch roll, spiral, and roll modes change when independent aircrafts are connected. Aircraft will be unstable in this configuration even if the independent aircraft is stable. Newton-Euler method is used to model the dynamic characteristics with absolute coordinates. Lifting line approach is used to generate aerodynamic loads. In addition, a flight test of MBA is presented to describe the test setup in detail.