Abstract
Busemann's concept of optimum altitude for rectilinear coasting flight has been extended to flight in a horizontal plane. The reachable domain of a vehicle in coasting flight in a horizontal plane, starting from an initial velocity, is obtained. It is shown that the area covered first increases with the altitude and then decreases to zero when the ceiling is reached. In particular, there exists an altitude for maximum longitudinal range and another altitude for maximum lateral range. Optimum variations in the lift coefficient and the bank angle to reach the boundary of the footprint are discussed.
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Busemann, A., Vinh, N. X., andCulp, R. D.,Optimum Altitude for Coasting Flight of a Hypervelocity Vehicle, Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1973.
Miele, A.,Flight Mechanics, Vol. 1: Theory of Flight Path, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1962.
Fave, J.,Approche Analytique du Problème du Domaine Accessible à un Planeur Orbital, La Recherche Aérospatiale, No. 124, May-June, 1968.
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Dedicated to Professor A. Busemann
This work has been supported in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant No. AF-AFOSR-71-2129.
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Vinh, N.X., Shieh, C.J. Optimum coasting flight in a horizontal plane. J Optim Theory Appl 17, 431–446 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00932782
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00932782