Transonic Aeroelastic Analysis of the X-59 Aircraft Using FUN3D

The Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), or X-59 aircraft, was designed and fabri- cated by the Lockheed-Martin (LM) Corporation under a contract from NASA as part of the QueSST Mission. One of the primary goals is to demonstrate that a low sonic boom is achievable via aerodynamic shaping. The aircraft successfully completed its first flight, marking the beginning of an extensive envelope expansion campaign. As part of the req- uisite preparation for first flight and subsequent flights, the combined NASA/LM X-59 team prepared documents towards Airworthiness Certification including various tests and analyses. Given that the aircraft will reach a maximum Mach number of 1.4, a transonic aeroelastic analysis has been generated to address any potential concerns at transonic con- ditions. Three different methods, all based on the FUN3D code, were used to generate these solutions: FUN3D, FUN3D/AEROM, FUN3D/Linearized Frequency Domain (LFD). Results are presented for four Mach numbers: M=0.95, 0.97, 0,99, and 1.05.