Wind Tunnel Experimental Investigation on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of the Multifin Rockets and Missiles

The transonic-supersonic wind tunnel experiment on the aerodynamics of the rockets and missiles that have four, six, eight flat or wrap-around fins is introduced. The experimental results show, while M _∞<2.0, with the increase of the fins' number, the derivative of lift coefficient is increasing, the pressure center is shifting backwards, and the longitudinal static stability is augmenting. On the contrary, while the Mach number exceeds a certain supersonic value, the aerodynamic effectiveness of the eight-fin missiles would be lower than that of the six-fin missiles. For the low speed short-range missiles, by adopting six, eight or ten flat fins configuration, the lift effectiveness can be greatly increased, the pressure center can be shifted backwards, the static and dynamic stability can be obviously enhanced. For the high speed long-range large rockets and missiles launched from multi-tube launcher, the configuration adopting more than six fins can not be useful for increasing the stability but would make the rolling rate instable during the flight.