Chapter 3

Design Disciplines

No Component Primary function Major areas of influence

1 Fuselage Accommodations UAV performance, longitudinal stability, lateral
(Payload, systems) stability, cost, stability
2 Wing Generation of lift UAV performance, lateral stability
3 Horizontal/ Longitudinal/Directional Longitudinal/Directional trim and control, stealth
Vertical tail stability
4 Payload Sense, measure, UAV weight, drag, performance, power consumption
release/drop a store
5 Engine Generation of UAV performance, stealth, cost, control
thrust/power
6 Landing gear Facilitate take-off and UAV performance, stealth, cost
landing
7 Control Create rolling, pitching, Maneuverability, cost
surfaces and yawing moment
8 Autopilot Control, guidance, and Maneuverability, stability, cost, flight safety
navigation
9 Mechanical Power Transmission UAV weight, power consumption
Systems
10 Recovery Recovery / Landing UAV weight, longitudinal trim control
system
11 Launch/TO Accommodate takeoff Longitudinal trim and control
system
12 Ground Parallel control, Cost, communication system
system command, receive data
13 Communicati Communicate with UAV weight, detectability, sense and avoid system
on system ground station
Table 3.1. UAV major components and their functions

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 Ribs

Main spar Skin

Figure 3.1. Main spar and rib

Transceiver and antenna drive

A
Radome A
Antenna

10 mm

a. Up-looking SatCom

Radar and antenna drive

Epoxy/glass spacer Epoxy/glass skins

Honeycomb cores
A
c. Section
Redome Antenna A AA

b. Down-looking radar

Figure 3.2. A typical cross-section of a low distortion radome

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No UAV Engine type Engine Thrust/power
1 Global Hawk Turbofan Rolls-Royce AE 3007 34 kN
2 General Atomics Avenger Turbofan Pratt & Whitney 17.7 kN
PW500
3 MQ-1 Predator A Piston Rotax 914 115 hp
4 MQ-9 Reaper Turboprop Honeywell TPE333-10 900 hp
5 RQ-7 Shadow 200 Piston UEL AR 741 28.3 kW
6 Northrop Grumman Firebird Piston Lycoming TO-540 260 kW
7 DJI Mavic 2 Pro quadcopter Electric 4820 mAh at 15.2 V 4×73 W
8 AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven Electric Aveox brushless 27/26/7 250 W
9 Arcturus UAV T-20 Piston Avgas 110 LL 7.5 kW
10 Aurora Perseus B Piston Rotax 94 73 kW
Table 3.2. Propulsion systems of a number of UAVs

No UAV Type Fixed/retractable

1 Global Hawk Tricycle Retractable
2 General Atomics Avenger Tricycle Retractable
3 MQ-1 Predator Tricycle Fixed
4 RQ-7 Shadow 200 Tricycle Fixed
5 Northrop Grumman Firebird Tricycle Retractable
6 MQ-5B Hunter Tricycle Fixed with fairing
7 DJI Mavic Pro Quadcopter Four-leg skid Fixed
8 Yamaha RMAX Skid Fixed
Table 3.3. Landing gear of a number of UAVs

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 Figure 3.3. Insitu ScanEagle on a ground launcher

No System Component Power (W)

1 Radar Transmitter 355
2 Receiver and exciter 95
3 Processor 400
4 Antenna system 75
5 Cables and connectors 25
Subtotal 950
6 Support Inertial Navigation System (including heat sink) 50
Equipment
7 Data link 185
8 Altimeter and GPS receiver 20
9 Support structure N/A
10 Cooling fans 150
Subtotal 405
Total 1,355
Table 3.4. UAV radar and support equipment power breakdown

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Figure 3.4. Wiring diagram of an instrumented Yamaha RMAX unmanned helicopter

No Battery type Energy density, Specific power Short Nominal cell

ED (Wh/kg) name voltage
1 Lithium-ion battery 100-250 300-900 kJ/kg Li-ion 3.6-3.8
2 Lithium polymer 100-265 360-950 kJ/kg LiPo
3 Nickel–cadmium 40-60 150 W/kg NiCd 1.2
4 Lead–acid 30-42 180 W/kg 2.1
5 Nickel metal hydride 60-120 250-1000 W/kg Ni-MH 1.2
6 Alkaline 160 Wh/L L 1.5

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 Table 3.5. Technical features of some rechargeable batteries

Elevator down
+E
+R Rudder to left
Left aileron down +A
y
+A cg Right aileron up
z

Figure 3.5. Convention for positive deflections of control surfaces (Back-view)

Aileron

Rudder

Elevator
Aileron n

Figure 3.6. Primary control surfaces

cg
y

z
Figure 3.7. Axes and positive rotations convention

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 Trade-off study to establish stability and controllability requirements

Identify aircraft class, and critical flight phases for longitudinal, lateral and directional
control

Determine/identify handling qualities requirements

Configuration selection of control surfaces

Calculate/establish aircraft center of gravity ranges (forward-aft, up-down, and left-right)

Design roll control surfaces Design pitch control surface Design yaw control surface

Investigate the cross coupling between roll-pitch-yaw control

surfaces

Optimization

Figure 3.8. Control surfaces design process

No Control Surface Configuration Aircraft Configuration

1 Conventional (aileron, elevator,
rudder)
2 All moving horizontal tail,
rudder, aileron
3 All moving vertical tail, elevator,
aileron
4 Flaperon, Elevator, Rudder
5 Taileron, Rudder
6 Elevon, Rudder (or equivalent)
7 Ruddervator, Aileron
8 Drag-Rudder, Elevator, Aileron
9 Canardvator, Aileron
10 Four control surfaces
Conventional (e.g., RQ-11 Raven)
Horizontal tail and elevator combined
Vertical tail and rudder combined
Flap and aileron combined
All moving horizontal tail (elevator) and aileron
combined
Aileron and elevator combined (e.g., ScanEagle)
V-tail (e.g., Global Hawk, Predator, and Shadow)
No vertical tail (X-45 UCAV, RQ-170 Sentinel)
Elevator as part of canard, plus aileron
Cross (+ or ×) tail configuration (e.g., most missiles)

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11 Aileron, Elevator (or No vertical tail. Aileron-like surfaces that is split into
equivalent), Split Rudder top and bottom sections
12 Spoileron, Elevator, Rudder Spoiler and aileron combined
13 Thrust vector control Augmented or no control surfaces (e.g., Quadcopters)
Table 3.6. Control Surface Configuration Options

Actuator Aileron
UAV
Command Dynamics u, v, w
Controlle Actuator Elevato p, q, r
r r

Actuator Rudder

Figure 3.9. Flight Control System with Conventional Control Surfaces

Figure 3.10. NASA Perseus B

No Aircraft Mis-hap rate (per 100,000 Reliability

hours) (%)
1 General Aviation (e.g., Cessna 172) 1.22 N/A
2 AV-8B Harrier II 10.7 N/A
3 Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady 3 96.1

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4 General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon 3.5 96.6
5 McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet 3.2 N/A
6 Boeing 747 0.013 98.7
7 Boeing 777 0.013 99.2
8 General Atomics RQ - 1 Predator 32 89
9 Northrop Grumman RQ - 4 Global Hawk 160
Table 3.7. Reliability and mishap rates for several manned/unmanned aircraft