Conceptual design of a fixed wing vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

This paper deals with the conceptual design of fixed wing Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of mini category. The UAV is designed as per the mission requirement including wing, fuselage, empennage and tilt-rotor mechanism. The UAV is then analysed for its aerodynamic, performance and stability analysis. Wing, fuselage, empennage and tilt-rotor mechanism is designed and modelled in OpenVSP and the whole UAV is analysed in VSPAero. The UAV designed has payload carrying capacity of 2kg 4kg, range of 90?km (with 2?kg payload), stall speed of 11.8m/s (without payload), 13.8m/s (with 2?kg payload) and endurance of 1.52 hrs (with 2?kg payload). The UAV being a fixed wing -VTOL system has better reach to geographically challenging areas than the fixed wing counterparts (like UAV Factory Penguin C/B/BE UAVs) and also less power consumption, higher speed and high payload carrying capacity compared to rotary wing counterparts (like DJI drones).