What is it about?
This work shows the design process of a small reconfigurable unmanned airplane, called Switchblade. By swapping modules, such as the wings, the aircraft is able to attain different performance characteristics for different mission scenarios. Aerodynamics and structural performance are analyzed through computational simulations, and an experimental setup is proposed at the end.
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Photo by Felipe Vieira on Unsplash
Why is it important?
It shows the aerospace community the early analysis of a novel modular UAV concept, which involves a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate design flexibility across drastically different missions.
Perspectives
It lays the foundation for future research on reconfigurable UAV for wide-mission performance. The aircraft in question can be used as a test-bed to research on different fields, such as VTOL aerodynamics, transition control, structural integrity of 3-D printed parts, etc.
Dioser dos Santos
Texas Tech University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Full-Cycle Design and Analysis of the Switchblade Reconfigurable Unmanned Aerial System, June 2022, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),
DOI: 10.2514/6.2022-3207.
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