One of the most promising powered-lift concepts is Upper Surface Blowing (USB), where the engines are placed above the wing and the engine exhaust jet becomes attached to the upper surface. The jet thrust can then be vectored by use of the trailing edge curvature since the jet flow tends to remain attached by the "Coanda Effect". Wind tunnel and flight-testing have shown USB aircraft to be capable of producing maximum lift coefficients near 10. They have the additional benefit of shielding the engine noise above the wing and away from the ground. Given the potential gains from USB aircraft, one would expect that conceptual design methods exist for their development. This is not the case however. While relatively complex solutions are available, there is currently no adequate low-fidelity methodology for the conceptual and preliminary design of USB or USB/distributed propulsion aircraft. The focus of the current work is to provide such a methodology for conceptual design of USB aircraft. Based on limited experimental data, the new methodology is shown to compare well with wind tunnel data. In this thesis we have described the new approach, correlated it with available 2-D data, and presented comparisons of our predictions with published USB data and an existing non-linear vortex lattice method. The current approach has been shown to produce good results over a broad range of propulsion system parameters, wing geometries, and flap deflections. In addition, the semi-analytical nature of the methodology will lend itself well to aircraft design programs/optimizers such as ACSYNT. These factors make the current method a useful tool for the design of USB and USB/distributed propulsion aircraft. / Master of Science

This research programme explores, theoretically and experimentally, a new liftsystem for Vertical/Short Take-off and Landing (V/STOL) Aircraft. It is based upon an annular wing wrapped around a centrifugal flow generator, potentially creating a vehicle with no external moving parts, reduced vehicle aerodynamic losses compared to previous V/STOL technologies and substantially eliminating induced drag. It is shown that such a wing works best with a thick aerofoil section, and appears to offer greatest potential at a micro-aerial vehicle scale with regard to fundamental performance parameter “lift to weight ratio”. Certain efficiency losses are encountered mainly occurring from annular flow expansion and problems with achieving acceptable blower slot heights. Experimental methods are described along with results, and a comparison shows that the experimental values remain below theoretical values, partly due to flow asymmetry but possibly also other factors. Symmetrical blowing, as initially hypothesised, was found to be impracticable; this suggested use of pure upper surface blowing with Coanda effect. The modified approach was further explored and proved viable. The ultimate goal of this work was to develop an understanding and the facility to integrate the annular-wing into a vehicle to achieve controlled powered flight. To serve the purpose, issues encountered on current and past V/STOL aircraft are being investigated to set a path for further research/development and to validate/justify the design of future V/STOL aircraft. Also, presented is a feasibility study where different physical scales and propulsion systems are considered, and a turbofan has shown to achieve the best performance in terms of Range and Endurance. This privilege allows one to accurately study the V/STOL technologies around.