Experimental investigation of the impact of flight speed on drag force in the autogyro model

The paper presents the experimental investigation of the impact of velocity on drag force in the autogyro model. One of the methods which simulate motion of the flying object consists of using a wind tunnel. In this case, test object is stationary and the motion of air is forced by e.g. a special fan. The costs related with renting and the wind tunnel service are still very high. In this paper, the motion of the autogyro with respect to the air, was produced by fixing this model with scale to measure the drag force on the passenger car roof. The position of the object relative to the vehicle was checked on the basis of numerical analysis of the airflow around this vehicle. Based on the investigations, the field of velocity and pressure, and air flow formed around the contour of the vehicle which have been chosen, were determined. In addition, the drag force characteristic was determined as a function of velocity and it was compared with the values from the numerical analysis. This research is a form of verifying opportunities for this type of research on vehicles. The conclusions derived from the analysis of the results will be used in the future to carry out further research.