Conceptual Design of Tactical Solar Power UAV

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study and design a concept of the tactical solar power UAV. The mission requirements derived from military applications: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) ISR (which including a longer operation time) 8 hours (, 350-1000 meters service ceiling, and less than 5 kg for take-off weight. This paper, a conceptual design of solar power UAV mainly based on Noth's methodology. A simple program coding created for sizing solar power UAV by using Scilab. In addition, the vortex lattice method) XFLR5 program (also employed to evaluate the basic aerodynamic characteristics for three different low-Reynolds number airfoils. The wing incident angle was then designed. From the conceptual design results, the coding indicated that the solar power UAV is the conventional type of aircraft, which is provided 4 meters in wingspan (Aspect ratio 13 (, 3.88 kg for take-off weight, and 69.13% for solar area to wing area ratio.