A special V-shaped support for blended wing body aircraft was designed and applied in high-speed wind tunnel tests. In order to reduce the support interference and explore the design criteria of the V-shaped support, interference characteristics and geometric parameter effects of V-shaped support on blended wing body aircraft were numerically studied. According to the numerical results, the corresponding dummy V-shaped supports were designed and manufactured, and verification tests was conducted in a 2.4 m × 2.4 m transonic wind tunnel. The test results were in good agreement with the numerical simulation. Results indicated that pitching moment of blended wing body aircraft is quite sensitive to the V-shaped support geometric parameters, and the influence of the inflection angle is the most serious. To minimize the pitching moment interference, the straight-section diameter and inflection angle should be increased while the straight-section length should be shortened. The results could be used to design special V-shaped support for blended wing body aircraft in wind tunnel tests, reduce support interference, and improve the accuracy of test results.

In order to improve quality and efficiency of Blended Wing-Body (BWB) aircraft’s high-speed wind tunnel test, while verify the reliability and practicability of flange balance in the test of such a layout aircraft. The specific flange-connected balance of BWB aircraft was designed and processed, which was designed under the limits of aerodynamic load and model interspace size. The comparison test results between the flange balance and the traditional cone balance were obtained by conducting a comparison test in the 2.4-meters transonic wind tunnel. The results show that the flange balance has high measurement accuracy and good correlation with the traditional cone balance. Flange balance meets the requirement of BWB layout aircraft high speed wind tunnel test and has a broad application prospect, so that it could be popularized in the future.

Supercritical wings are widely used in large aircraft due to their excellent transonic performance, but their aerodynamic characteristics are highly sensitive to Reynolds number. To systematically study the influence of Reynolds number on the aerodynamic characteristics of a supercritical wing, cryogenic high Reynolds number pressure measurement tests were conducted in the European Transonic Wind Tunnel (ETW). A 1:17.87 scale wing-body combination model of a typical supercritical wing was employed. The Reynolds number was increased via the pressure increase and cooling technique, covering a test Reynolds number range from 2.3 × 10⁶ to 3.5 × 10⁷. Model deformation effects were isolated to obtain pressure data reflecting pure Reynolds number effects. The variation patterns of pressure distribution, lift characteristics, and pitching moment characteristics with Reynolds number were analyzed. The results indicate that, at lower speeds (Ma = 0.4 and 0.6), the supercritical wing is less affected by Reynolds number; the upper surface is more significantly influenced by Reynolds number than the lower surface; the Reynolds number effect primarily manifests in the transonic regime by delaying the onset position of the shock wave on the upper wing surface, thereby affecting aerodynamic force characteristics; several aerodynamic characteristic parameters such as ΔC_L, α₀, and C_m exhibit a linear relationship with the logarithm of Reynolds number. Experimental results obtained at low Reynolds numbers cannot be directly extrapolated to actual flight conditions, necessitating the consideration of Reynolds number effect in the aerodynamic design optimization of large aircraft.

The internal drag of the unconventional inner flow channel of blended wing body aircraft must be measured accurately to correct the air intake effect of the blended wing body flow-through model in wind tunnel tests. In this study, the pressure distribution of the inner flow channel under the interaction of internal and external flows was obtained through numerical simulation. A specialized pressure-measuring rake was designed based on the numerical results, and a validation test was conducted in a 2.4 m × 2.4 m transonic wind tunnel. Compared with the flow in traditional inlets/nozzles, the flow in the unconventional inner channel in the current research is asymmetric, the distortion index is higher, and the internal drag is more sensitive to flow changes. The wind tunnel test results have a good correlation with the numerical results, and the repeatability of the test results is satisfactory, indicating that the measurement accuracy and precision of the pressure-measuring rake are acceptable. The design method of the specialized rake is feasible, and it can be used to guide the measurement of complex flow in unconventional inner flow channels of blended wing body aircraft.