Research Progress in the Flight Characteristics of Flyers Driven by Different Technologies

Flyers driven by various technologies have been widely used as effective shock loading techniques in the ignition of energetic materials, space debris impact modeling, equation of state measurement, etc. However, their flying characteristics have the greatest influence on application reliability. The flying velocity, as well as the flyer’s planarity and integrity, are crucial characteristics. Therefore, mainstream flyer-driving technologies are examined in this study, and research progress in investigation approaches on flyer velocity and morphology are reviewed. Furthermore, for each flyer-driving technique, the affecting factors of flyer velocity and morphology are summarized. Current research deficiencies are highlighted, and future research directions are discussed, including the parallel coupling of various driving principles, quantitative characterizations of the flyer’s planarity and integrity, and the physical model matching the flying process.