ICIUS-2013-266

Preliminary Design and Development of small class UAV for testing of different
payloads and sensors
Lakshay Chauhan1, N S Raghava2 and P B Sharma3
1,2,3
Delhi Technological University, Delhi,110042
Abstract
Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for target acquisition, surveillance and reconnaissance is becoming an
integral part of defense strategies, surveying and monitoring and other civil applications . These systems

employ payloads like Infrared, Electro Optical cameras for target acquisition. For the
development and testing of such payloads stable airframes are required. This paper focuses on
the development of an approach to design small class UAVs. This includes the mission
requirement analysis and the conceptual designing of the aircraft. The approach followed
reduces the design time and cost substantially, giving a holistic view of the design in the early
stages of development.
Nomenclature
Wx
E
V
Cbhp

=
=
=
=
=

weight of x
endurance
velocity of aircraft
specific fuel consumption
propeller efficiency

L
D
We
Wo
W
t
s
Vstall

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

lift
drag
empty Weight
total Weight
weight in consideration
thrust
wingspan
stall velocity
density of air

Cl
Cd
g

=
=
=
=

coefficient of lift
coefficient of drag
acceleration due to gravity
fuel fraction before take off

to =
landing =

fuel fraction after take off

fuel fraction after landing

= dynamic pressure
= coefficient of friction

AR
e
n
P

= aspect ratio
= Oswald efficiency factor
= load factor
= power

ICIUS-2013-266

Introduction
Many industries have started to focus on the rapid design and fabrication of small class UAVs which will be
easily deployed with a small payload. These developments are becoming quite critical in the unmanned systems
field as they can provide quick solutions to low, medium intensity situations such as crop monitoring, civil law
enforcement, pipeline surveillance etc. To achieve this, a generic mission was defined to suit these applications.
Mission requirements were analyzed followed by the conceptual design. In the conceptual design phases, a
design space was constructed using the requirements. The outcome from the design space shall meet the
performance requirements of the mission.

I.

Design Requirements and Analysis

Design requirements analysis was based on the most generic mission of a small class UAV. This shall
comprise of a short take off, loitering on the mission area for a specific time and then landing. The key points to
be noted for the analysis are the short take off and landing distances. For such an application the UAV should be
capable of being launched and recovered from unprepared surfaces. The endurance is dependent on the type of
mission. This particular mission was transformed from physical environment to technical aerodynamic
requirements as shown in Table 1. The table describes the design parameter and their values for this mission.
Generally, this class of UAVs uses a payload camera ranging from 2-6 kgs. The value of cruise speed and
endurance have been selected keeping in mind the general requirements for target acquisition and teams flight
testing experience over the years.

S no.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Table 1: Values of different parameters

Parameter
Value
Payload type and weight
Day/Night/IR Camera, 2-6 Kg
Take off distance
200 ft
Landing Distance
200 ft
Endurance
2-4 hours
Cruise Speed
65 Kmph

II.

Conceptual Design

The derived requirements from the objectives as defined in Table 1, guided the overall design of the UAS. Other
factors directly affecting the design are Gross Take-off Weight (GTOW), Payload Weight and Take-off/Landing
distance which are used in the conceptual design. The conceptual design was divided into three segments
comprising of preliminary weight estimation, constraint space sizing and airfoil selection.

A. Preliminary Weight Estimation

Primarily the weight comprises of three components such as empty weight, fuel weight and the payload
weight. The aim of the design is to maximize the payload weight and keep the empty weight of the aircraft low.
Similarly to keep the fuel weight minimum Specific fuel consumption (SFC) of the engine should low.
Therefore engines selection is critical and directly affects the GTOW. Together the weight and engine power
determine the performance characteristics of the aerial vehicle.
The algorithm for the initial weight estimations is shown in Fig. 1. This algorithm uses fuel weight, payload
weight and a guess weight to calculate empty weight from equation 1. This is then used to calculate overall
weight from equation 3. The process is iterative until the guess weight and the overall weight have converged to
an acceptable error value.

ICIUS-2013-266

Wguess

Wempty
calculated

Wfuel

Wpayload

Iteration
Figure 1 Algorithm for initial weight estimation

The weight is calculated by the equation 1, 2 [1]. And equation 3 [2] is used to converge the values to first
estimate of GTOW,

Wguess

Wpayload
1 Wfuel Wempty

(1)

In the equation 1, the payload weight Wpayload is defined in the requirements and W guess is approximated for
the type of aircraft and from empirical data. Fuel weight is calculated by Brequets equation [1].

EVC bhp
Wi
exp

L
Wi 1
550p ( D )

We
0.0795
0.916 Wo
Wo

(2)

(3)

The converged value acts as a starting point for the design process. In the calculation of initial weight
estimation, guess weight is taken as 50 Kgs and the solution for GTOW converges to 18 Kgs. From this data
empty weight fraction can be calculated. This allows the designer to modify the values of payload and observe
its effect. Payload weight may be increased, but subsequently endurance will decrease and vice versa.

B. Constraint Space Sizing

Constraint space represents the effect of various parameters such as take-off distance, landing distance,
turning radius, stall speed etc. In Figure 2, four parameters have been considered and are represented in the
graph between wing loading and power loading. These constraints have been used to define a design space
which will meet all the requirements defined earlier. The equations 4, 5, 6, 7 [1, 3, 4] govern the constraint
space. Equation 4 represents the stall speed constraint in terms of wing loading. Similarly equation 5 and 6
represent take off and landing distance respectively in terms of wing loading and thrust loading. Equation 7 uses
sustained turn value to put the constraint on the design space.
1.

Stall Speed equation

2
w
0.5 Vstall Cl max
s

(4)

ICIUS-2013-266

2.

Take-off Distance

1.44 to wto
t
Cdoq

w Cl max gSto s
wto

s
3.

(5)

Landing Distance

w dlandCl max g

s
1.68land

4.

(6)

Sustained Turn
2

t qCdo w n

w w s qA Re

s

(7)

Also

t 550p p

w
v w

(8)

Figure 2 Wing Loading versus Power Loading

In Figure 2, the area marked by green space is the constructed design space which shall have the values of stall
speed, take off distance, landing distance and turning radius under the required limits.
All the points in the design space offer one unique aircraft design satisfying the requirements specified. For
finding an optimum point, all the parameters of the design were assigned a weight as shown in Table 2. The
weight depends upon their effect on the overall design. Using the weighted sum method, all the points were
given a score.
Table 2 Percent weight of the parameters
GTOW
35%

Endurance
20%

Payload
25%

Take off Run

5%

Landing Distance
5%

Min. Control Speed

10%

ICIUS-2013-266

Using this scoring method, the point with the maximum score was chosen and the design specification with
respect to that point has been given in Table 3. This model was used as a starting point and was further
developed taking in account other factors and constraints.
Table 3 - Output of the conceptual design code
GTOW
18 kg
Wing Span
3.8 hp
Power required
Wing Area
70 m
Take-off Distance
Payload
65 m
Landing Distance
Endurance

122 inches
11.02 sq ft.
3 kg
2 hours

C. Airfoil Selection
Airfoil selection [5] is based on the velocity profile and altitude of operation of the aircraft. For this
application, various high lift airfoils were analyzed to compute the desired performance of the aircraft. Based on
the coefficient of lift, coefficient of drag, moment coefficient, thickness of airfoil and endurance, the selected
airfoils were studied and compared. Xfoil Xflr software was used to analyze these airfoils on low Reynolds
number using vortex lattice method and lifting line theory. This analysis has been shown in figure 3 and 4.

Figure 3 Selected Airfoils

Figure 4 Study of Coefficient of lift versus Coefficient of drag

ICIUS-2013-266

These airfoils were analyzed for Reynolds number 1,00,000 to 20,00,000. Airfoil MH114 was selected for
its high lift and moment coefficient. This will not only provide higher endurance but decrease drag penalty also.
This is used for modeling the wings and subsequent analysis has been done with this model.
This results in the selection of the airfoil which will meet the performance requirements of the aircraft.

III.

Conclusion

This approach has evidently established a methodology to design a small class UAV at its preliminary stages.
Transforming the mission characteristics to requirement analysis forms the basis for the design. The
requirements then have tailored the overall design including weight estimation, aircraft parameters to meet the
performance requirements. Such procedures prove quite efficient in the designing of small aerial platforms
saving the computational and design time. Such a method also helps in predicting any major changes or errors at
an early stage. In this paper only initial stages of design have been discussed. The aircraft has been fabricated
and tested. It carries a payload of 3 kgs providing an endurance of 2 hours.

Acknowledgments
We extend our sincere thanks to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company for their support.

References
[1] Raymer, D. P.,Aircraft Design: a Conceptual Approach, AIAA Education Series, American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Washington DC, 3rd ed., 1999.
[2] Andreas Sobester, Andy J Keane, James Scanlan, Neil W. Bressloff ,Conceptual design of UAV
airframesusing a generic geometry service AIAA 2005-7079
[3] Jan Roskam, Airplane Design Part 1: Preliminary sizing of airplanes, Roskam Aviation and
Engineering Corporation
[4] Jan Roskam, Airplane Design Part 2: Preliminary configuration design and integration of
propulsion system, Roskam Aviation and Engineering Corporation
[5] Houghton E. L. and Carpenter P. W., Aerodynamics for Engineering Students, Fifth
Edition, Elsevier, 2003