Design and performance quantification of VTOL systems for a canard aircraft. (28th October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pedro, S.; Tomás, D.; Lobo do Vale, J.; Suleman, A.
• Is Part Of: Aeronautical journal. Volume 125:Number 1292(2021)
• Page Start: 1768
• Page End: 1791
• Publication Date: 2021-10-28
• Subjects: UAV -- vertical take-off and landing -- canard; Aeronautics -- Periodicals; 629.1305
• DOI: 10.1017/aer.2021.63
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0001-9240

Abstract

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.