Future aircraft design highly depends on the successful implementation of new technologies. However, the gap between conventional designs and new visions often comes with a high financial risk. This significantly complicates the integration of innovations. Scaled unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are an innovative and cost-effective way to get new configurations and technologies in-flight. Therefore the Institute of Aircraft Design developed the e-Genius-Mod taking into account all relevant similitude requirements. It is a scale model of the electric motor glider e-Genius. Since the Reynolds number for the free-flight model cannot be adhered to, an airfoil was developed with lift-to-drag and lift-to-angle-of-attack courses reproducing the full-scale e-Genius flight characteristics. This will enable testing and assessment of new aviation technologies in a scaled version with an opportunity for free-flight demonstration in relevant environment.
Abstract. Measurements of flow conditions at complex sites that are difficult to install a met mast are expensive and can only be carried out with great effort. Concepts and new measuring methods are needed to evaluate these sites. This article presents an experiment in which an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), more precisely a helicopter, was equipped with a standard 3-D ultrasonic anemometer. This UAV was positioned closed to a meteorological measuring mast and remained stationary at a constant altitude to measure the wind speed components. The data of the UAV were compared with the measurements of an ultrasonic sensor installed on the met mast. The measurements shows a deviation of 0.1 m/s for the horizontal speed. A comparison of the PSDs shows a very good agreement.
The high-power density and good scaling properties of electric motors enable new propulsion arrangements and aircraft configurations. This results in distributed propulsion systems allowing to make use of aerodynamic interaction effects between individual propellers and the wing of the aircraft, improving flight performance and thus reducing in-flight emissions. In order to systematically analyze these effects, an unmanned research platform was designed and built at the University of Stuttgart. As the aircraft is being used as a testbed for various flight performance studies in the field of distributed electric propulsion, a methodology for precise identification of its performance characteristics is required. One of the main challenges is the determination of the total drag of the aircraft to be able to identify an exact drag and lift polar in flight. For this purpose, an on-board measurement system was developed which allows for precise determination of the thrust of the aircraft which equals the total aerodynamic drag in steady, horizontal flight. The system has been tested and validated in flight using the unmanned free-flight test platform. The article provides an overview of the measuring system installed, discusses its functionality and shows results of the flight tests carried out.
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