Design and development of a small scale fixed wing aerial vehicle for over the hill missions in urban warfare

Abstract

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) and NANO Aerial Vehicles (NAVs) robots mimicking the maneuvering flight of birds and insects are the future of Aerospace industry. These small size air vehicles have been the platforms of choice for reconnaissance, surveillance and real time aerial video transmission involving over the hill missions in recent urban warfare scenarios. This research work aims at design and development of a radio controlled small scale fixed wing aerial vehicle with maximum span dimension of 12 inches capable to operate within a flight radius of 3 kilometers with a minimum flight endurance of 30 minutes. Biologically inspired “Pigeon Shape” design with a maximum wing span of 12 inches was selected as the baseline configuration. Geometric and Propulsive design variables were selected with direct bearing on the aerodynamics, propulsion, performance and stability & control disciplines. A design of experiments array with more than 1200 runs was generated and configurations were analyzed using the specially formulated modeling & simulation environment. Finally sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the optimal design configuration. The optimum design was validated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis and Fluid Surface interaction (FSI) process. The validated configuration airframe was fabricated using CNC machining and tested in a low speed wind tunnel. The wind tunnel results were in agreement with the CFD results and earlier results obtained during the conceptual design phase. The finalized configuration was developed using off the shelf components, fabricated and thoroughly ground tested followed by successful flight testing.