Experimental Research of Sonde Free Jettison from UAV

Abstract

Experimental research of sonde free jettison from a high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) model was carried out. The sonde model and its ejection mechanism were designed according to the principle of dynamic similarity. Influences of different conditions to the sonde jettison were studied by analyzing the sonde trajectory and attitude recorded by high speed cameras. Results show that the sonde doesn't collide with the UAV in the experiments. And the flight altitude, Mach number and angle of attack have little influences on the sonde jettison, but the angle of side-slip show great influence.