The High-Speed Flight Demonstration Phase 2 is a night experiment program to investigate the transonic aerodynamic characteristics of the HOPE-X winged re-entry vehicle. A vehicle based on a scaled HOPE-X configuration is lifted by stratospheric balloon to an altitude of 20 to 30 km from where it is released and accelerates to transonic speeds in free-fall. To acquire useful aerodynamic data, the guidance and control system must maintain vehicle's Mach number at a constant value while varying its angle of attack quasi-statically. After data acquisition, the vehicle must be guided to a selected recovery point and attain suitable recovery parameters. In this paper, the design of a guidance and control law to achieve these requirements is described, and its evaluation by non-linear flight simulation is presented.
Guidance and control for High Speed Flight Demonstration Phase 2
