1/25/2018 Airframe – CanberraUAV

CanberraUAV

Airframe
The airframe covers the physical structure of the UAV required to achieve controlled ight.

The engine and power systems will be covered in a separate section.

General

The airframe chosen for a UAV will depend heavily on the expected mission pro le. For example, a UAV that is
to carry a 5kg payload for 2 hours will be far larger than a UAV that can carry a 1kg payload for 1 hour.

In general, smaller UAV’s a easier and cheaper to use. The airframe should be the smallest possible to
complete the mission pro le.

As a starting point, some good airframes are:

Bixler
Skywalker
Ranger
Boomerang

Some larger and longer range airframes include:

X8
VQ Porter
Beaver

Build versus Purchase

For the vast majority of cases, a purchased airframe is better. This is due to known stable ight characteristics,
easy access to spare parts, quicker construction time and cheaper to build.

However, building your own airframe does have a few advantages. This includes being tailored for your exact
ight mission pro le, airframe having enough room for the electronics (some airframes have very little
physical room for this) and the ability to optimise the e ciency of the airframe (leading to greater
range/ ying time).

Thus, in general, it is a better option to purchase an o -the-shelf airframe. However, it may be worth looking at
custom airframes is you have access to the fabrication equipment and suitably quali ed team members.

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Building an airframe

Material

The are ve major construction materials for UAV airframes. The emphasis is on cheap, light and readily
available materials. Strength is less of a factor – a hard landing can easily damage the airframe.

Foam – usually EPP or EPO type. They are similar the the syrofoam used in packaging. This type is used by
most small electric aircraft. It tends to “bounce” after a hard landing, due to it’s elastic properties and thus is
quite forgiving for less experienced pilots. Some glues and chemicals can dissolve the foam. Any wings made
of foam tend to need a wooden or carbon bre spar, as the stresses of normal ight can snap the wing.

Balsa/Plywood – Used in most gas/nitro planes. It is much stronger than foam in normal ight. It is less able to
absorb energy in impacts, leading it to shatter rather than “bounce” like foam.

Fibreglass – Usually used as a covering, as it is light and strong.

Plastic – As with breglass, it is usually used as a covering for the wings or fuselage.

Carbon bre – Very light, strong and sti . Due to the expense and di culty of manufacture, it is usually only
used for spars and beams.

Planform

The planform is the basic layout and placement of the wings and engine. There are three major types:

A tractor planform has the engine (and propeller) at the front of the airframe. Thus the engine is “pulling” the
aircraft along.

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Tractor Planform

A Pusher planform has the engine at the rear of the aircraft, where is “pushes” the aircraft along.

A pusher planform

A Flying Wing has no clear fuselage section, rather the area between two thick wings are used as a small
“fuselage”.

X8 – Flying wing planform

Limitations
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Every airframe has performance limitations. These are based on the physical size, shape and weight of the
airframe.

Wind

The maximum operating wind speed refers to when the wind speed is fast enough to limit the safe
maneuverability of the UAV.

In the below diagram, a UAV is set to cruise at 20 m/s airspeed (velocity relative to the wind). Translating this
to speed relative to the (stationary) ground, the UAV will travel one side of the pattern at 30 m/s and the other
side at 10 m/s.

Beyond a certain windspeed, the UAV will no longer be able to make any progress along the ground. Any
sudden turns into the wind will signi cantly stress the wings and fuselage too.

The e ects of wind on an airframe (groundspeed in blue)

Wing stress in turns

Due to an UAV needing to bank (roll) into a turn, stresses are placed on the wings. This is due to the centripetal
forces acting on the wings (and also the fuselage, but the wings are the weaker of the two).

In general, the tightness and speed in a turn should be constrained to below <3 g. Using the centripetal force
equations:

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Where v and r are the velocity and radius of the turn respectively.

For example, an UAV turning about a radius of 50m must do so at a airspeed less than 38 m/s.

The exact g limit of an airframe will depend on it’s construction.

Maneuverability

The desired maneuverability of the airframe should be taken into account when choosing an appropriate
airframe.

In addition to the aforementioned turn radius, the maximum climb rate and stability (when fully loaded)
should be tested to ensure it ts with the desired requirements.

Stall speed

The stall speed is the minimum airspeed of the airframe before the wings can no longer produce lift. Below
this speed, the airframe will tend to “drop out of the sky” and recovery is di cult at low altitudes. Accordingly,
this e ect is mostly encountered during takeo and landing, where the airframe is close to the ground and
traveling at a low airspeed.

The stall speed should be programmed into the ight controller and known by the pilot (when ying manually)
in order to decrease the chance of a crash due to stalling.

The lower the stall speed of the airframe is, the more stable the airfame is at these lower speeds, but this can
come at the cost of a less e cient airframe at higher speeds.

Launch and Recovery

In terms of launching (takeo ) and recovering (landing), there are a few options. Each method has it’s own
advantages and disadvantages, and may only be applicable for certain types/sizes of airframes.

Bungee (launch) – The airframe is pulled along a short (5-10m) rail that is angled upwards. The pulling force is
provided by a bungee cord. The airframe needs to be small/light enough to be accelerated to takeo speed,
such that it will keep on gliding when it run of the end of the rail. At this stage, the engine will be started and
will propel the UAV further.

This is a small and compact launch method.

Road (launch and recovery) – This is a traditional approach used by full-sized aircraft, where the UAV will use
it’s own power to accelerate down the road and takeo . Similarly for landing, the UAV will (gently) land on the
road and will use the rolling resistance of the landing wheels to decelerate.

This method can be used for any size and planform of airframe, but does depend on there being a nearby at
and straight piece of road or track.

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In addition, the wheels and landing struts should be of appropriate size and strength to cope with the forces
involved in takeo and landing.

Vertical (launch and recovery) – The airframe is able to takeo and land vertically (or near-vertically), much
like a helicopter. This method has the advantages of not requiring a large at area for launch, and can scale to
any size of airframe.

The major disadvantage is the requirement of specialist airframe capable of vertical ight.

Parachute (recovery) – When near the desired point, the UAV will slow to just above stall speed, deploy a
parachute and cut the engine. It will then oat gently to the ground.

This method does not require a large area for recovery, but care must be taken to ensure the engine’s
propeller (or airframe) does not be caught or tangled in the parachute.

Net capture (recovery) – Similar to a parachute recovery, the aircraft will slow to just above it’s stall speed
and then y into a large net (similar to a volleyball next) and be caught in the next.

It does require a medium sized area to allow for the net and low-altitude approach of the UAV, but can be
scaled for use with large and small airframe sizes.

Hand Launch (launch) – Similar to the bungee launch, but it uses a human arm instead of a bungee. Whilst the
engine is running, a team member will throw the UAV into a shallow climb. The UAV should then accelerate
away.

This is a very simple and compact launch method, but can generally only be used for <5kg UAV’s (depending of
the arm strength of the person performing the launch). Care should also be taken to prevent the propeller
coming in contact with the launcher.

Transport and Setup

When choosing an airframe, two important considerations are the complexity of transporting it to the ight
area and any associated setup.

Larger airframes, in order to t inside a standard-sized car, usually require a more involved setup – such as
attaching the wings and assembling the fuselage pieces. This in turn requires additional pre ight checks to
ensure the airframe has been assembled correctly (in particular the wiring).

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Assembling an UAV

In some cases, the UAV or the car may need to be modi ed in order to t:

Fitting the (folded) UAV into a car

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