Multiaxis nose-pointing-and-shooting in a biomimetic morphing-wing aircraft

Supermaneuverability, in broad terms, refers to the complex forms of non-conventional maneuverability that are found in high-performance combat aircraft. This capability includes maneuvers such as the Pugachev cobra, Kulbit and Herbst maneuver [1-3]; as well as broader, competing, classifications of flight behavior, including rapid nose-pointing-and-shooting (RaNPAS), pure sideslip maneuvering (PSM) [4,5] and direct force Page 3 of 32 maneuvering (DFM) [6]. The development of supermaneuverable aircraft has been founded on advances in the study of unstable airframes, and the development of vectored propulsion technology [1,2]. Modern supermaneuverable aircraft remain characterized by these mechanisms; but increasing interdisciplinary contact with biological studies of maneuverability in flying creatures has led to parallel studies of an alternative, biomimetic, mechanism of supermaneuverability: one based on controlled wing morphing and motion. Thus far, biomimetic perching in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been a central focus of these studies [7-9], with extensions into hover-to-cruise transition maneuvers [10], and incidence-based stall turns [11]. These maneuvers are primarily bio-inspired, and as such, studies of the biomimetic mechanism supermaneuverability have remained disjointed from studies of the thrust-vectored mechanism: the relationships between biomimetic and thrustvectored maneuvers, mechanisms, and capabilities are rarely recognized [3].