F/A-18E/F weapons separation wind tunnel to flight test trajectory and clearance comparisons

Abstract

The Navy has outlined an aggressive weapon separation clearance program for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development (EMD) phase that encompasses 18 different stores and 33 unique weapons loadings, 27 of which were flight tested during EMD. This paper outlines the F/A-18E/F weapons separation flight test program including: the role of wind tunnel test data and analysis, store telemetry data, photogrammetric process and data, and comparisons of wind tunnel based analysis to flight test weapon trajectories and clearance distances. The results indicate that high fidelity wind tunnel testing can be used to structure a more cost effective and lower risk flight test program. Wind tunnel based trajectories and clearance distances compare quite well with the majority of flight test results throughout the flight envelope. The most difficult areas to correlate are stores with deployable or movable surfaces and releases in the high transonic region between Mach 0.9 and 1.0. Careful attention to modeling details greatly improves prediction capability in the transonic region.