Hypersonic Aerodynamic Characteristics for Lifting Bodies

Abstract

Considerable interest exists today in the development of hypersonic lifting bodies which offers the possibility of rapid long distance travel within the earth's atomosphere. It is disirable to have a high Lift-Drag ratio for a vehicle which flies at fairly lower speed than orbital velocity. In this paper, a brief discussion of available theoretical and empirical results for hypersonic aerodynamic characteristics of flat-top wing body combination is given.