AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A WEDGE AND CONE AT HYPERSONIC MACH NUMBERS Thesis by Lt. Lee R. Scherer, Jr., U.S. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirenents For the Degree of Aeronautical Engineer California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 1950ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express his sincere appreciation to Dr. Henry T. Nagamatsu for his formulation of the problem and for his interest and guidance throughout the investigation, Appreciation is also expressed to Mrs. Katherine MeColgan, Aeronautics Librarian, whose patience and aid in ferreting out obscure references assisted materially in obtaining the necessary literature for this investigation, and to Miss Shirley Woodbury for her assistance in preperation of the manuscript. The author is also indebted to his associate in the problem It. Richard D. Delauor, WSN.iL ABSTRACT Up to the present time, the reliability of the determination of aerodynamic characteristics at hypersonic Mach numbers by theore= tical caloulations has been unknown due to the lack of experimental data, This report is the calculations of these characteristics by four different theories of a wedge and a cone over a range of Mach mumbers from 2 to 12. Correlation of these results with wind tumel tests was not possible due to scheduling difficulties of the hypersonic wind tunnel; therefore, this report is designed to serve as the basis for comparison of future hypersonic experiments. Fron correlation of the various theories it is found that the closest agreenent to the exact theory at hypersonic speeds is given by the hypersonic similarity theory. Above Mach numbers of about 3, the first and second order theories deviate considerably from the exact theory.