Modeling of Proprotor / Wing / Flap Interaction for Advanced Vertical Lift Aircraft

Abstract

Recent advanced vertical lift aircraft under development, including several eVTOL configurations, employ tiltwing or tailsitter designs that feature strong proprotor/wing interaction. The operational and flight control requirements of these aircraft typically require the use of flapped wing surfaces to provide high lift in critical low-speed and transition flight conditions. This paper builds on and extends recent assessments of the capabilities of current-generation 'mid-fidelity' design support tools for addressing the complex interactional aerodynamics of such aircraft. The focus here is on the analysis of multiple-component wings operating in proprotor-induced flows, an important step in enabling sizing and design of lifting surfaces for practical tiltwing aircraft. While motivated in part by recent design efforts, the paper does not concern itself with specific new designs, but rather with assessing the readiness of current tools for supporting analysis of such configurations through validation with relevant public domain data sets, identifying both areas of strong predictive capability and challenges requiring additional development work.