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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 109 - Salt Lake City - March 2012
Agenda Location	7 SUBCOMMITTEE A – AERONAUTIC AND SURFACE VEHICLES 7.4 Formation Flight
Title	Formation Flight
Presenter	Joe Pahle
Affiliation	NASA DFRC
Available Downloads*	presentation
	Downloads are available to members who are logged in and either Active* or attended this meeting.
Abstract	An Initial Flight Investigation of Formation Flight for Drag Reduction on the C-17 Aircraft Joe Pahle, Dave Berger NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, 93523 Mike Venti, Chris Duggan, Jim Faber, Kyle Cardinal Tybrin Corporation, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, 93523 Many theoretical and experimental studies have shown that aircraft flying in formation could experience significant reductions in fuel use compared to solo flight. To date, formation flight for aerodynamic benefit has not been thoroughly explored in flight for large transport-class vehicles. This paper summarizes flight data gathered during several two ship, C-17 formation flights at a single flight condition of 275 knots, at 25,000 ft MSL. Stabilized test points were flown with the trail aircraft at 1,000 and 3,000 ft aft of the lead aircraft at selected crosstrack and vertical offset locations within the estimated area of influence of the vortex generated by the lead aircraft. Flight data recorded at test points within the vortex from the lead aircraft are compared to data recorded at tare flight test points outside of the influence of the vortex. Since drag was not measured directly, reductions in fuel flow and thrust for level flight are used as a proxy for drag reduction. Estimated thrust and measured fuel flow reductions were documented at several trail test point locations within the area of influence of the lead’s vortex. The maximum average fuel flow reduction was approximately 7-8%, compared to the tare points flown before and after the test points. Although incomplete, the data suggests that regions with fuel flow and thrust reduction greater than 10% compared to the tare test points exist within the vortex area of influence.