Aerodynamic design of a blended wing body VTOL UAV

Abstract

To satisfy the needs of marine environmental monitoring applications for shipborne unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), this study developed a small long-endurance vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV specifically for shipborne applications. The proposed UAV featured a Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) design, and its aerodynamic design was investigated and improved. Emphasis was placed on improving aerodynamic performance, including increasing the lift-to-drag ratio, reducing the impact of the pitchdown moment, and improving the aircraft’s directional stability. Combined with the form of vertical takeoff and landing, VTOL equipment with a fin-shaped landing gear was proposed to improve the aircraft’s directional stability. The results indicate that the improvement achieved a 4.13% increase in the lift-to-drag ratio and a 30.1% increase in the directional static stability derivatives.