DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF SMALL TAILLESS UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE
Muhammad Zakaria, M. Abdallah, Maj. ElShafie · The International Conference on Applied Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering · 2012
The military has shown the most recent interest in small UAVs (SUAVs) for manyreasons. We developed a tailless small UAV (flying wing) for military application(SAKR 2) and short range reconnaissance. SUAV is much more portable than itslarge counterparts and requires only one operator. A smaller reconnaissance planecan assess ground targets at a closer range without being detected. Most SUAVsuse electric motors for advantages as it is affected less by the environmentalcircumstances, lower weight, less vibration and having lower cost. Also an SUAV isless expensive and can be considered a disposable asset. Our design philosophy isbased upon improving aerodynamic features, surveillance capability, and controllingthe systems autonomously. To fulfill the mission requirements we designed a taillessplanform flying wing with 120 cm wingspan, flying at a maximum speed of 30 m/sand about 3 kg take-off weight. Two identical prototypes was fabricated and testedunder several flight conditions using remote control to examine flight stability andperformance. A commercial autopilot and short range video link was integrated to theSUAV to complete the unmanned system. The designed SUAV succeed to perform20 minutes flying in stabilized mode with circle pattern and appeared to haveaccepted navigational accuracy using FY-3ZT autopilot.