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Wind-tunnel tests of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) separating from two fighter aircraft have been conducted. UAVs present different concerns in separation testing than do conventional stores due to the presence of large lifting surfaces, physical size, and control surface effects. The planning and results of these recent investigations give several new results with respect to the separation testing of complex configurations. Separation trajectory simulations using experimental data have been used to demonstrate the unique requirements of UAV separation testing. The simulation demonstrates that simplifications in the aerodynamic grid proximity testing matrix can be made without sacrificing simulation accuracy. Results indicate that simplification in ejector modeling used with simple stores should not be applied to UAVs. The simulations also indicated that it is important to properly model the aircraft control surface effects on the UAV. NomenclatureMy.-freestream Mach number X, 7, Z = store longitudinal, lateral, and vertical displacements in the aircraft axis system (aligned with the aircraft longitudinal axis, origin is at the store center of gravity); positive forward, right and down, ft X P , y/>, Z P = store longitudinal, lateral, and vertical displacements in the pylon axis system (aligned with the store longitudinal axis, origin is at the store center of gravity); positive forward, right and down, ft a = aircraft angle of attack, deg 0 = store pitch angle, positive nose up as seen by the pilot, deg 0 = store roll angle, positive clockwise rotation looking upstream, deĝ = store yaw angle, positive nose right as seen by the pilot, deg

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Over the past few years, many techniques for analyzing the aircraft flowfield effects on stores have been presented. Generally these methods have been employed in order to better define the flowfield interactions with the store of interest and to help define possible areas of the envelope where separation may be unsafe. Quite often, however, these techniques are applied too late in the integration process to have a positive impact on the eventual integration of the weapon on the aircraft. Additionally, most of these techniques have been applied to vertically separating stores. The present study concerns the integration of the HARM missile onto the F/A‐18E/F aircraft. This study was undertaken in the earliest stages of the program tasked with integrating the missile on the aircraft. An existing analytical model of the F/A‐18E/F was used to derive the flowfield of the F/A‐18E/F. This model was then used to make a number of assessments concerning the difficulty of integrating stores onto the F/A‐18E/F aircraft.