Performance Flight Testing of Small, Electric Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Flight testing methods are developed to find the drag polar for small unmanned aerial vehicles powered by electric motors with fixed-pitch propellers. Wind tunnel testing was used to characterize the propeller-motor efficiency. The drag polar was constructed using data from flight tests. This drag polar was then used to find the following performance parameters: maximum velocity, minimum velocity, velocity for maximum range, velocity for maximum endurance, maximum rate of climb, maximum climb angle, minimum turn radius, maximum turn rate, and maximum bank angle. The developed flight testing methods are used to characterize the performance of a small UAV.