Overview of unsteady aerodynamic response of rigid wings in gust encounters

Recent interest in flight through gusty winds has given rise to a large body of work on discrete large-amplitude gust encounters where the magnitude of the flow disturbance is large enough to incite massive flow separation. This paper outlines and introduces work performed as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Science and Technology Organization’s Task Group AVT-282 on the unsteady aerodynamic response of rigid wings in gust encounters, with a focus on two-dimensional wings passing through large-amplitude transverse, vortex, or streamwise gusts. Definitions and parameterizations of a gust encounter and research questions addressed by the group are given here, along with plans for near term future work.