Sweeping jet control mechanism and its application in flapless flight control

The flapless aerodynamic control technology of aircraft has the advantages of low additional weight, excellent control performance and suitability for stealth design by using the active flow control method of jets and eliminating the traditional mechanical flap surface. This paper presents the application of sweeping jets in flapless aerodynamic layouts to address the problem of high air consumption caused by the low control efficiency of existing steady jet control methods. This paper outlines the current research status of two flapless control technologies, i.e., circulation control and fluidic thrust vectoring, and then discusses the mechanism and advantages of the sweeping jet in terms of control area, enhanced flow mixing, and frequency regulation. The mechanism and performance of the sweeping jet in flapless flight control are presented in detail in terms of circulation control and thrust vectoring.