Aerodynamic Loads on External Stores: A Review of Experimental Data and Method of Prediction

A survey has been made of the available literature on the aerodynamic loads associated with the external carriage of pylon-mounted stores adjacent to wing-fuselage combinations. The existing methods for estimating the store/pylon loads at both subsonic and supersonic speeds are reviewed with some indication of their accuracy, range of validity and the extent to which they have been verified experimentally. Illustrations are given showing how the loads vary with store position, wing geometry, Mach number and other factors. Particular stress is laid on the fact that the pylon-induced effects can make a very large contribution to the store loads. Details are also given of the complex flow fields adjacent to typical wing-fuselage combinations since these are vital to any real understanding of the problem. None of the existing methods appears to be entirely satisfactory particularly for the transonic range where even the available experimental data are severely limited. In an attempt to meet one of the more important deficiencies, a new empirical method is presented (Section 7) for the estimation of store/pylon side force. This method is based on all the readily available evidence but needs further experimental verification.