AERODYNAMIC DESIGN OF PEGASUS(TM) - CONCEPT TO FLIGHT WITH COMPUTATIONAL FLUID-DYNAMICS

Pegasus(TM), a three-stage, air-launched, winged space booster, was de veloped to provide fast and efficient commercial launch services for s mall satellites. The aerodynamic design and analysis of the vehicle we re conducted without wind-tunnel and subscale model testing, using onl y computational aerodynamic and fluid-dynamic methods. All levels of c odes, ranging in complexity from empirical database methods to three-d imensional Navier-Stokes codes, were used in the design. This article describes the design and analysis requirements, the unique and conserv ative design philosophy, and the analysis methods considered for the v arious technical areas of interest and concern.