Plasma Based Energy Deposition for Mitigation of Sonic Boom: Experiment to demonstrate viability

By the end of this year, we intend to have a two inch diameter, operational test article which continuously generates a symmetric plasma discharge. We intend to ensure this symmetry by adding a magnet to the original one inch diameter design which was used to demonstrate this shock wave attenuation effect in an earlier wind tunnel test. We will be testing a slightly larger model in order to better instrument the test article. This larger model will also add to our understanding of how the size of the model affects the amount of power needed to attenuate the shock waves. We also intend to demonstrate that the discharge from this new model significantly attenuates any shock waves generated at flight relevant conditions in a supersonic wind tunnel. The next step after this year is to mount this test article to the "Big Red" flight test fixture underneath a NASA F15, fly at Mach 1.6 at 31kft, 32kft and 33kft and possibly Mach 1.8 at 33kft. And use AirBOS to image the shockwaves coming off of the model with plasma on and plasma off.