Design of fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Design of fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Veh..

This intriguing book breaks new ground on an emerging subject that has attracted considerable attention: the use of unmanned micro air vehicles (MAVs) to conduct special, limited-duration missions. Significant advances in the miniaturization of electronics make it now possible to use vehicles of this type in a detection or surveillance role to carry visual, acoustic, chemical, or biological sensors. Interestingly, many of the advances in MAV technology can be traced directly to annual student competitions, begun in the late 1990s, that use relatively low-cost model airplane equipment. The wide variety of configurations entered in these contests and their ongoing success has led to a serious interest in testing the performance of these vehicles for adaptation to practical applications. MAVs present aerodynamic issues unique to their size and the speeds at which they operate. Of particular concern is the aerodynamic efficiency of various fixed-wing concepts.