A Flight Investigation of the Wake behind a Meteor Aircraft , with some Theoretical Analysis

1'~ experimental investigation of the wake behind a Meteor 4 EL?XW&Z has beon carried out, and theory used wherever possible to confirm a& ater.d the results &tamed. Xea~urements ehw that for the conditions oovered in these tests, the jet velocity has fallen to a negligible value by about 200-300 ft behinil the jet exrt. The act muld oe tiqected to persist Longest under take-o~cf conditims although no measurements were made of this specific case. The mayor disturbances behind on airoraf't are due to the trailing vortices and tntise decay only slowly. Tests with a Vampire flying in the wake of the irIeteor show that the strength of these vortices has only fallen to about half its initial velue by 8000 ft behind the ~aircrsft. lkory and flight test experi~ncc show that the rolling mment impwed on a tracking aircraft constitutes the most severe disturbance from those vortices, ard that in scmo circumstances this rolling moment can be sufficiently large to ovorpo~fer the ailcron control cf the tracking aircraft, Theory indicates that the disturb,anoes from the tr,siling vortices will be very severe for a small slow lircr,aft flyxng in the make of a large hoavlly loaded aim&t. at low speed. The disturbances encountered by a missile attacking an aircraft will depend largely upon the relative mze~ of the missile and aircraft, but in mxny oases m%y be small, 'as the closing speeds are usually high rind the missile ning span small.