• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2003

The flight trajectory of a boomerang is predicted with the momentum theory (actuating disk theory) and the blade element method generally used as tools to analyze in the rotary-wing aerodynamics. Boomerangs made by students are actually compared with the computational results, utilized to get the physical intuition. The transition from helicopter mode to autogyro mode with the gyroscopic precession is observed in numerical analysis and experiment like a 'flying rotor' after the boomerang taking off. The whole system is shown to be highly nonlinear and very sensitive to the initial conditions. Various flight loci may be obtained if we change the parameters.