Design and testing of three tailless unmanned aerial vehicle configurations built for surveillance in Antarctic environment

Abstract

The tailless fixed-wing aircraft have a very compact design and therefore are very attractive as portable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms. There is a special need for using such platforms in case of operations in such backlands as Antarctica, because very often the equipment necessary for preparing improvised airfields near Antarctic scientific bases and organizing the UAV flights must be hand-carried. The main aim of this paper is to present the design activity and testing of a number of UAV configurations to be used for aerial monitoring in Antarctic areas and collecting data of local ecosystems. Two UAV flying-wing platforms – MONICA-1 and MONICA-2 – were developed, differing largely with respect to wing-loading and weight-to-power ratios. The light-weight Skywalker X-8 built from the kit and used as a baseline configuration was adapted for special photogrammetric missions. It was found that the main advantage of such light UAV consists in a very simple take-off system (i.e. bungee), however due to low wing loading a usage of this UAV is limited to the so-called ‘weather windows’ of relatively low wind, which do not frequently occur in Antarctica. MONICA-1 is much less sensitive to gust but as a heavy platform it is more difficult to handle in harsh Antarctic environment. To be able to operate in much wider range of the wind, vertical gust and heavy turbulence, typical for Antarctic zones, a special UAV platform – called MONICA-2 – was designed and manufactured. MONICA-2 platform of higher wing loading is smaller than the X-8 and at the same time is able to carry the same photogrammetry equipment. The effort of designers focused on achieving low sensitivity to gust and turbulence by increasing the critical angle of attack and natural static and dynamic stability in the whole range of operational speeds. The paper contains the selected design details and some observations from the flight tests.