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Design and wind tunnel tests of a tiltwing UAV

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Abstract

Within the EU and North Rhine-Westphalia funded research project AVIGLE, the Institute of Flight System Dynamics develops a multi functional flight platform in a tiltwing configuration. The different mission requirements as well as the specific requirements due to the tiltwing configuration influence the design process. Within each specification step, the impact on horizontal and vertical flight, including transition states in between has to be considered. Beside numerical flow analysis, extensive wind tunnel tests were conducted to confirm the calculated coefficients and derivatives and to gain data needed to build a six degrees of freedom simulation for development of controlling strategies in transition. Particular emphasis was put on the influence of the propeller induced slipstream on the aerodynamic coefficients and the stability analysis during transition phases between horizontal and vertical flight.

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Abbreviations

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

LTE:

Long-term evolution

UAV:

Unmanned aerial vehicle

VTOL:

Vertical takeoff and landing

A H :

Tailplane area

AR:

Aspect ratio

A R :

Rotor area

A V :

Fin area

A W :

Wing area

A x,z :

Drag reference area

C D :

Drag coefficient of the wing

C L :

Lift coefficient

D :

Overall drag

D W :

Airfoil drag

L T :

Lift of the tailplane

L W :

Lift of the wing

M W :

Pitching moment of the wing

P el,0 :

Electrical power during hovering

T :

Thrust

\(V_{\infty}\) :

Freestream velocity

V W :

Velocity at the wing

V Prop :

Propeller-induced slipstream

W :

Weight

X :

Forces in x f -direction

Z :

Forces in z f -direction

b :

Wingspan

c :

Chord length

c o :

Outer chord

c r :

Root chord

l μ :

Mean wing chord

r H :

Distance to tailplane

r V :

Distance to fin

u :

Horizontal velocity

w :

Vertical velocity

x :

x-axis specified through index

y :

y-axis specified through index

z :

z-axis specified through index

x R :

Distance to tilt axis in x f -direction

z R :

Distance to tilt axis in z f -direction

α:

Angle of attack

β:

Side slip angle

\(\zeta\) :

Rudder deflection

η:

Elevator deflection

ηMotor :

Motor efficiency factor

ηProp :

Propeller efficiency factor

κ:

Slipstream flap deflection

ξ:

Aileron deflection

ρ:

Density

σ:

Incidence angle of the wing

f :

Coordinate system along aircraft axis

k :

Coordinate system along flight path

References

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Acknowledgments

Our work has been conducted within the AVIGLE project, which is part of the Hightech.NRW research program funded by the German Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research in North Rhine-Westphalia and the EU. AVIGLE is conducted in cooperation with several industrial and academic partners. We thank all project partners for their work and contributions to the AVIGLE project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Flight System Dynamics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    J. Holsten, T. Ostermann & D. Moormann

Authors
  1. J. Holsten
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  2. T. Ostermann
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  3. D. Moormann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Holsten.

Additional information

This paper is based on a presentation at the German Aerospace Congress, September 27--29, 2011, Bremen, Germany.

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Holsten, J., Ostermann, T. & Moormann, D. Design and wind tunnel tests of a tiltwing UAV. CEAS Aeronaut J 2, 69–79 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-011-0026-4

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