Optimal Jettison Control for Range Maximization of Gliding Vehicles

The effect of jettison on the range performance of aerial vehicles in gliding flight dealt with. It is shown that the achievable range can be increased by an optimal application of jettisoning. For this purpose, jettisoning is considered a control which is included in the trajectory optimization directed at the range maximization of a gliding vehicle. Furthermore, it is shown that the improvement in the gliding performance by optimal jettisoning is greater at high than at low speed. This effect is demonstrated for two vehicles one of which relates to the high end of the speed spectrum (orbital stage) and the other to the low end (sailplane). Another result is that the performance improvement is greater for the lateral than for the longitudinal maximum range flight.