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Design and performance quantification of VTOL systems for a canard aircraft

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2021

S. Pedro ,
D. Tomás ,
J. Lobo do Vale Open the ORCID record for J. Lobo do Vale [Opens in a new window]  and
A. Suleman
S. Pedro
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
D. Tomás
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
J. Lobo do Vale*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
A. Suleman
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada IDMEC, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The design and performance quantification of four Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) architectures for a canard-type aircraft configuration are presented. The aero-structural sizing of the canard configuration and the sizing procedure for the proposed VTOL configurations are described and discussed. The proposed VTOL architectures are based on a range of rotor distances to the centre of gravity, quad- and tri-rotor configurations, retractable front rotors and tilt rear rotors. The aerodynamic performance, total installed power and VTOL system mass were modelled and experimentally validated. The results show that a fully exposed VTOL system penalises the Lift-over-Drag (L/D) ratio significantly relative to a clean configuration. The VTOL system mass can be reduced by up to 32% by using a tilt tri-rotor configuration when compared with an equidistant quad-rotor+pusher configuration. The fraction of installed power usable for forward flight can be increased by up to 80% with a tilt configuration. For the proposed mission, the range can be significantly increased if a tri-rotor tilt configuration is adopted in place of an equidistant quad-rotor+pusher configuration.

Keywords

UAVvertical take-off and landingcanard
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 125 , Issue 1292 , October 2021 , pp. 1768 - 1791
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Aeronautical Society

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