NATO STO

Previous work under several AVT groups has provided a basic understanding of unsteady aerodynamics in the context of a manoeuvring air vehicle. Most recently, AVT-282 formulated a working definition and categorization of large-amplitude gusts, defined as an unsteady variation in the local flow velocity of the same order of magnitude as the flight speed. New types of experiments, numerical methods, and analytical models were established to study the effect of gusts on the fundamental aerodynamics, handling, and control of an air vehicle in unsteady flight environments. Results of this work have shown that while there are some similarities between the manoeuvring aircraft problem and the gust encounter problem, there are also important fundamental differences in the flow physics and therefore in the aerodynamic response and likely in the most suitable gust mitigation strategies.