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Design of Solar Powered Unmanned Biplanes for HALE Missions

  • Conference paper
Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering: Mathematical Challenges for Aerospace Design

Part of the book series: Springer Optimization and Its Applications ((SOIA,volume 66))

Abstract

Some of the results of a research about the design of solar powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to be used in High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) missions are given. The proposed airframe architecture has a biplane layout, conceived to face the most significant challenge for this kind of aircraft: to fly at high altitude, under wintertime conditions and for a wide range of latitude angles. The Solar Powered Biplane (SPB) concept is presented as well as the related design procedure, which can be used to define UAVs for different purposes and mission conditions, such as loiter altitude, latitude and year’s day. A presentation of the design method is given, providing details about models for Aerodynamics, Flight Mechanics, energy balance evaluation, structural analysis and propulsion system sizing. As a particular result of this research, an SPB configuration capable to meet some of the requirements indicated by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as goals of the HALE flight, is illustrated. Such aircraft, which can operate in each year’s day, at latitudes up to 45° and altitudes up to 18 000 m, is described in details, and a flexibility analysis for different mission conditions is carried out.

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Abbreviations

AM :

Air Mass

AC V :

Aerodynamic centre of vertical surfaces

b :

Wingspan

B :

Balancing Mass Fraction

CG :

Centre of gravity

CP :

Centre of pressure

C L :

Lift coefficient

C D :

Drag coefficient

E :

Energy

E A :

Aerodynamic efficiency

G h :

Non-dimensional horizontal distance between wings

G v :

Non-dimensional vertical distance between wings

H :

Altitude

H cruise :

Cruise altitude

m :

Pitch moment

mac :

Mean aerodynamic chord

M :

Mass

MoS :

Margin of longitudinal stability

n z :

Vertical load factor

NP :

Neutral point

N V :

Number of vertical wings

N wt :

Number of wing trunks on half wingspan

P :

Power

P min :

Minimum required power

P req :

Required power for cruise flight

Re :

Reynolds number

S H :

Horizontal wing area

S R :

Ratio between rear wing and front wing areas

S V :

Vertical wing area

T :

Mission endurance

V :

Speed

V cruise :

Cruise speed

\(V_{P_{\mathrm{min}}}\) :

Minimum required power speed

V V :

Vertical tail volume

α :

Angle of attack

β :

Angle of sideslip

γ :

Angle of climb

ΔT th :

Endurance variation threshold

ΔM th :

Mass variation threshold

ε g :

Energy Density

Φ :

Latitude angle

η :

Efficiency

ρ :

Density

ac :

Accumulator

st :

Structure

lg :

Landing gear

m :

Motor

pay :

Payload

ch :

Charge (ref. to accumulators)

dis :

Discharge (ref. to accumulators)

sa :

Solar array

sc :

Solar cell

p :

Propeller

f :

Flight

d :

Devices

in :

Input or initial

out :

Output

th :

Threshold

AFOV :

Angular Field of View

DARPA:

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DIA:

Department of Aerospace Engineering

ERAST:

Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology

FEM:

Finite Element Method

HALE:

High Altitude Long Endurance

IFOV :

Instantaneous Field of View

IRS:

Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance

LE:

Leading edge

NASA:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

SPB:

Solar Powered Biplane

TE:

Trailing edge

TLC:

Telecommunication

UAV:

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

VLM:

Vortex-Lattice Method

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Acknowledgements

My thanks go to all the people who worked with me on this topic at Department of Aerospace Engineering and, in particular, to the former students Paolo Rossi, Maurizio Borghi, Pasquale Cantisani, Luca Montanelli, Andrea Isoppo and Matteo Moisè. I also want to thank Prof. Aldo Frediani and Prof. Giuseppe Buttazzo for giving me the opportunity of presenting this work at the “Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering II” Workshop.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Pisa, Via G. Caruso 8, 56122, Pisa, Italy

    Vittorio Cipolla & Aldo Frediani

Authors
  1. Vittorio Cipolla
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  2. Aldo Frediani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vittorio Cipolla .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Mathematics "L. Tonelli", University of Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 5, Pisa, 56127, Italy

    Giuseppe Buttazzo

  2. , Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, University of Pisa, Via G. Caruso 8, Pisa, 56122, Italy

    Aldo Frediani

Appendix

Appendix

This section contains information about the characteristics of main components taken into account for the design of SPBs (Table 6).

Table 6 Components data
Full size table

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Cipolla, V., Frediani, A. (2012). Design of Solar Powered Unmanned Biplanes for HALE Missions. In: Buttazzo, G., Frediani, A. (eds) Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering: Mathematical Challenges for Aerospace Design. Springer Optimization and Its Applications(), vol 66. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2435-2_7

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