Modeling and analysis for a generic hypersonic vehicle

The non-standard dynamics characteristics of hypersonic vehicles, the aerodynamic effects together with the wide range of speed and altitude during operation make modeling and control of these vehicles highly challenging. Modeling and analysis of hypersonic vehicles are important for control and navigation system design. A six degrees of freedom simulation model of the wing cone generic hypersonic vehicle (GHV) was developed considering time-varying mass property and thrust vector. The longitudinal/lateral-directional static stability, the aerodynamic characteristics of lift-drag ratio, the flight trimming and the linearization of the nonlinear model in full envelope were analyzed, concluding the static stability characteristics of the GHV under all flight conditions. The lift coefficient and lift-drag ratio are smaller than conventional aircraft´s. The flight modes´ features and variation regularities were presented in in-depth study. Simulation results of the model show that longitudinal phugoid/short-period modes are the same as conventional vehicles´ while there are a number of new lateral-directional modes. Stability of all modes is closely related to the mass variation. The model and analysis results can be used to do further research on navigation, guidance and control system design and other key technologies for the GHV.