Characterizing Wing Rock with Variations in Size and Configuration of Vertical Tail

Flight at high angle-of-attack conditions, which range beyond wing stall, has numerous advantages for mission performance; however, that flight regime is often affected by adverse behaviors. A particularly notable behavior is associated with uncommanded oscillations primarily about the roll axis and is known as wing rock. This paper investigates wing rock for a small, propeller-powered aerobatic unmanned aerial vehicle with a high degree of vertical symmetry flown at high angle-of-attack conditions. Most importantly, the investigation characterizes the nature of wing rock as a function of size and configuration of the vertical tail. The flight data indicate that wing rock is dependent on the configuration but not on the size of the vertical tail: wing rock oscillations are present for upright but not inverted regardless of vertical tail size. Furthermore, a time-frequency analysis indicates that the wing rock is actually a narrowband phenomenon for which the central frequency varies with time.

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