22nd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Harrogate, UK, 28 August - 1st September, 2000
Paper ICAS 2000-3.6.2

DYNAMICS OF HIGH ALTITUDE LONG ENDURANCE UAV

Z. Goraj
Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

Keywords: stability, panel methods, airplane design

This paper presents dynamic analysis of a high altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (HARVE-2). Panel method has been used to compute aerodynamic characteristics of high wing monoplane with V-shape empennage. Weight prediction, finding mass distribution and computing the moments of inertia has been included into analysis. Steady trimmed flight conditions were found from a nonlinear set of equations of motion. Stability derivatives were computed basing on pressure distribution and were compared to those obtained from simplified engineering procedures. Damping and frequency coefficients for natural modes of vibrations were computed and discussed in details. A number of stability characteristics for various flight altitude and mass of the airplane (changeable with flight path) has been included and discussed in the paper. This analysis can be treated as a starting point for further refinement of dynamic characteristics in the context of flying and handling qualities.

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