Drag Resistant Aerospike
Encyclopedia : D : DR : DRA : Drag Resistant Aerospike
A Drag Resistant Aerospike is a telescoping outward extension that reduces frontal drag on missiles. The aerospike serves to form a sort of pilot hole which initiates a shockwave or channel in the airstream and reduces the amount of resistance on the main missile body.
The Trident missile system uses a drag resistant aerospike to reduce its drag by up to 50 percent.
In 1995 at the 33rd Aerospace Sciences Meeting it was reported that tests were performed at an aerospike-protected missile dome to Mach 6, obtaining quantitative surface pressure and temperature-rise data on the feasibility of using aerospikes on hypersonic missiles. Similar systems are also seen on supersonic aircraft.
See also
External links
- http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/PDF/aiaa-95-0737.pdf.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.