Abstract: The variation of the wing vortex breakdown vs. the angle of attack for a missle with a cruciform set of wings was investigated through experiments. The tests was carried out by conducting the flow pattern visualization in the water channel at BUAA. The model had two nose shapes-pointed and blunted nose. The wing was set at fore or aft location along the axis of the body. The experimental results indicate that for the configuration with the same nose, the location of the vortex breakdown for the "wing with aft location is closer to the wing trailing edge than that of the wing with fore location. While for the configuration with wing at aft location, the wing vortex breakdown for the blunt nose is delayed comparing to that for the pointed nose.

Key words: wing-body combination, separation flow, vortex breakdown.