Evaluation of the F/A‐18E/F Aircraft Flowfield Effect on the HARM Missile

Abstract

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.