Abstract
Previous research has shown the potential for a thrust augmenting ejector to be used as an alternative to the swivel nozzle for short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircrafts. Previous designs for integrating a thrust augmenting ejector failed to make the transition from hovering to wing-borne flight and back to hovering or were not fully tested. Therefore, the two main objectives of this research are: (1) to obtain a numerical solution for the performance of a thrust augmenting ejector in transition and (2) to verify if an ejector with enough thrust could be integrated into the wing and enable the aircraft to go through transition from hovering to wing-borne flight and back to hovering. The numerical solution for the ejector’s performance was obtained by running multiple CFD simulations in ANSYS FLUENT for different speeds and ejector deflection angles. Our research demonstrated that the performance of an ejector wing registered an augmented thrust increase of up to 25 percent lower speeds than Mach 0.25. Similarly, the ejector performed well during transition at take-off and landing speeds; therefore, the feasibility of a thrust augmenting ejector proving to be an improvement to the swivel nozzle for Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing aircraft is high.