Experimental Investigation of Inlet-to-Inlet Shock Interference

This report describes the experimental program conducted, and presents wind tunnel test data obtained during the comprehensive study of supersonic pod to pod inlet interference. This test established, for a typical Mach 3.0 design mixed compression inlet, the dividing line between the regions of expelled shock interference and completely stable operation and the total pressure recovery penalty imposed by operating with pod to pod interference. The penalty required in order to maintain stability during the initial transient of the onset of “buzz” was so severe that it cannot be considered practical. A plate placed between pods was found to be very effective in eliminating the interference penalty.