Low-Boom Performance Demonstration of a Long, Staged Aftbody*

The effectiveness of a “staged aftbody” proposed by Toyoda et al. (AIAA J., Vol. 52, 2014, pp. 2899–2901) was further investigated using an aeroballistic range with a free-flight Mach number of 1.7. Near-field pressure signatures were obtained from a pressure transducer that was flush-mounted on a flat plate. From these signatures, far-field pressure signatures were obtained by the waveform parameter method. It was demonstrated that a flight model whose length-todiameter ratio was even as high as 21 exhibited considerable elongation of the overall tail-boom pressure signature duration, thereby effectively mitigating the tail boom.