Influence analysis of Waverider wake on the deflection rate of light

Abstract

In the future, aircraft will have both high flight speed and high stealth characteristics, and its detection will become a complex problem. However, the disturbance generated by the high-speed aircraft is evident in its tail flow field, which can be treated as a new feature. In this paper, the flow field of a Waverider at different attitudes and speeds is investigated. By observing the deflection of a 532 nm light beam incident in different directions, the relationship between deflection magnitude and the Waverider’s attitude is established. As a result, the light will deflect most ($8.82\times 10^{-5}$ rad/s) when Waverider with a 6 Ma flying speed and 0 angle of attack. While the mini deflection occurs when Waverider flies at 4 Ma speed and with a $10^\circ$ angle of attack. By analyzing different conditions, this paper points out that the traveling length of light and magnitude of the scalar gradient in wake most positive correlate to the light deflection angle. As speed goes up, the wake becomes narrow, but the scalar gradient rises so that the light deflects most at Ma6. As the incident of light goes closer to horizon direction, its traveling length in wake rises, the max deflection usually with a corresponding incident direction of $20^{\circ }$.