Design and Realization of a Cable-Drogue Aerial Recharging Device for Small Electric Fixed-Wing UAVs

Abstract

As the application scope of small electric fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) becomes increasingly broad, the limitation of endurance caused by the battery technology is also becoming more evident. This paper proposes a cable-drogue aerial recharging method to solve this problem based on the aerial refueling technology of fuel-powered aircraft. We designed and built a cable-drogue aerial recharging device for small electric fixed-wing UAVs. Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulations and drogue-towing flight experiments, the drag and motion characteristics of a cable-drogue model were obtained, verifying the effectiveness of the drogue-design modeling method. Finally, simulated charging tests of the aerial recharging device were completed, and the feasibility study of the cable-drogue aerial recharging method was conducted.