Prop-plane — New convertible VTOL UAV as a combination of a longitudinal bicopter and a flying wing with a tilt-rotor powertrain

Abstract

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircrafts are the newest and rapidly developing topic which is not only capable of improving Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) potential but also to create new use cases. This paper proposes a new convertible VTOL concept designed to obtain optimum flight characteristics for monitoring or flying over long objects. The distinctive feature of the proposed design is a combination of a flying wing with a longitudinal bicopter. The aircraft folds the wings down along the main axis of the aircraft during vertical take-offs and landings to descend the center of gravity and increase stability in bicopter mode. The convertible plane maximizes performance during horizontal flight while maintaining vertical take-off and landing capabilities.

The design has been implemented in prototype, and the internal systems and the airframe have been designed and manufactured. As a result, the calculated technical characteristics of the UAV including wind resistance capability were described, the principal elements and components of the design were discussed, and the flight tests of the prototype created were conducted and results presented. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of the concept are reviewed and further development of the project is discussed. The conducted work allows us to confirm the assumption that the developed concept can be used for real-world monitoring missions and to continue developing the concept for a full-scale UAV.