The development of complex lifting configurations and high speed maneuvering vehicles has emphasized the need for numerical techniques to predict aerodynamic heating rates as a function of the vehicle trajectory. These numerical programs are not expected to eliminate the requirements for wind tunnel and flight testing, but will be an aid to more efficient use of experimentation time and improve confidence that all potential problem areas on the vehicle have been examined. Three programs, the Hypersonic Arbitrary Body Program, the MINIVER Program, and a third program were examined to determine their usefulness for vehicles with non-circular cross sections and large flat areas as exemplified by lifting reentry vehicles. The MINIVER code was found to be unsuitable for this; the Hypersonic Arbitrary Body Program was applicable to these shapes, but because of program limitations was used for only limited calculations. The last program also had limitations in the areas of geometry description and surface pressure calculations. Efforts were made to remove these limitations and several shapes were investigated. The ultimate goal of this effort was to extend the capabilities of one or more of the heating codes; while no effort was made to improve MINIVER or the Hypersonic Arbitrary Body Program, significant improvements were made in the last program and inviscid flow field program.

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