Preliminary design and wind tunnel tests of a micro air vehicle for surveillance and sensor-bearing applications

Abstract

This work presents the preliminary design of a micro air vehicle (MAV) and the wind tunnel tests of some wing configurations identified, in the design phase, as potentially suitable for the MAV realization. After some considerations about the airfoil adoption and its performance estimation, five possible plan shapes for the wing are defined and the three-dimensional model realization is described. These wings are experimentally tested in a wind tunnel as simple wings and as complete MAV dummies, equipped with vertical fins. The results from the tests allow the selection of the most promising configurations among those tested for the achievement of the desired MAV performance. A final evaluation on the better performing wing is carried out with regard to the placement of the components in its interior and to the calculation of its stability parameters.