satellite launch vehicle, the nose cone may become the satellite itself after separating from the final stage of the rocket, or it may be used as a payload fairing
to shield the satellite until out of the atmosphere, then separating (often in two halves) from the satellite.
On airliners the nose cone is also a radome protecting the weather radar from aerodynamic forces.
A Messerschmitt Bf 109G. In pursuit of minimising weight and drag, the Bf 109's main gun was mounted in the fuselage with the barrel coaxial to the hollow propeller shaft, exiting via a blast tube in the nose cone - a rare configuration, but not unique to the Bf 109.
The shape of the nose cone must be chosen for minimum drag so a solid of revolution is used that gives least resistance to motion. The article on nose cone design contains possible shapes and formulas.
Supersonic
Due to the extreme temperatures involved, nose cones for high-speed applications (e.g. Supersonic speeds or atmospheric reentry of
carbon fibers, or as in of some Chinese FSW reentry vehicles, oakwood.[1]
In general, the constraints and goals for atmospheric reentry conflict with those for other high-speed flight applications; during reentry a high-drag blunt reentry shape is frequently used, which minimises the heat transfer by creating a shock wave that stands off from the vehicle, but some very-high-temperature materials may permit sharper-edged designs.
aerodynamic design of the nose cone section of any vehicle or body meant to travel through a compressible fluid medium (such as a rocket or aircraft, missile or bullet), an important problem is the determination of the nose cone geometrical shape for optimum performance. For many applications, such a task requires the definition of a solid of revolution
shape that experiences minimal resistance to rapid motion through such a fluid medium, which consists of elastic particles.
^"Ballistic Missile Basics". Special Weapons Primer. Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved February 3, 2008.
