Charecteristics of aircraft types

Contents
• Long-endurance, Long-range role Aircraft
• Medium-range, Tactical Aircraft
• Close Range/Battlefield Aircraft
• MUAV Types
• MAV and NAV Types
• UCAV
• Novel Hybrid Aircraft Configurations
 Long- endurance,Long -range aircraft
• These are typified by the Northrop-Grumman Global Hawk,
high-altitude, long-endurance UAV and the General
Atomics Predator, medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV
• Each has horizontal and vertical tail surfaces at the rear to
provide aerodynamic stability in pitch and yaw respectively.
• The task of these UAV types is long-range reconnaissance
and they are required to carry a sophisticated(and therefore
usually heavy) payload into position over long distances
(say 5000 km) and to remain on station for a considerable
time, probably 24 hr.
• Long-endurance UAV, and particularly HALE UAV
therefore, are characterised by high aspect ratio wings .
 Global Hawk Block 20 (Tier 2 Plus)
by Northrop-Grumman.
GLOBAL HAWK – HALE
Wing-span 39.9m
Length 14.5m
MTOM 14,628kg
Max. Endurance 35hr
Max Altitude 19,800m
Payload - mass 1,360kg
Stabilised, high-magnification
Optical and I.R. TV.
Synthetic Aperture Radar

Predator B
by General Atomics Inc.
Wing-span 20m
Length 10.6m
MTOM 4,536kg
Max. Endurance 32hr
Ceiling 12,000m
Payload :- mass 230kg
Stabilised, High-mag.
Optical and I.R. TV.
S.A.R.

Long-endurance, long-range, HALE and MALE air vehicles (Reproduced by permission of General
Aeronautical Systems Inc. and Northrop Grumman)
Representative Performance of a HALE UAV
Comparison Of Leading Particulars of Predator and Global-Hawk UAV

Predator Global Hawk

All Up Mass [kg] 4536 11636

Payload[kg] 360 608

Fuel load[kg]] 1360 6590

Wing Loading[kn/m2] 1108 2283

Span Loading 1450 3234

Wing Aspect Ratio 16 25
Vmin@s.L.ISA[KT]# 80 120
Altitude Ceiling[m] 12,000 20,000
Loiter speed[kt] 150? 340
Cruise speed[kt] 230 450?
Max.Flight 32 42
Endurance{hr]
Range 3,400? 5500
Endurance on 24 36
station[hr]

MALE and HALE comparison

 Medium -range,Tactical Aircraft
• The fixed-wing aircraft in this
category generally have wheeled
undercarriages to take off from, and
land onto, runways or airstrips,
sometimes with rocket assistance
for take-off and with arrester-wires
to reduce landing run distance.

• Fixed-wing Aircraft
Typical of these are:
• a) the Hunter RQ-5A UAV by IAI, Two-seat Hunter at Shuttleworth
Malat and Northrop Grumman, USA; Military airshow 2013
• b) the Seeker II UAV by Denel
Aerospace Systems, South Africa;
• c) the Ranger UAV by RUAG
Aerospace, Switzerland;
• d) the Shadow 600 UAV by AAI
Corp., USA.
 IAI Malat – Hunter Heavy Tactical
All-Up-Mass 885kg
Power (Heavy Fuel) 2 x 50kW
Speed 200km/hr
Radius of Action 250km
Flight Endurance 21hr
Payload Mass 100kg
Optical & IR TV combined
SAR, COMINT & ESM
Comms. Relay, NBC Monitor
Customer-furnished payloads

Denel Aerospace - Seeker II

All-Up-Mass 275kg
Power 38kW
Speed 220km/hr
Radius of Action 250km
Flight Endurance 10hr
Payload Mass 50kg
Optical & IR TV
Electronic Surveillance

Medium-range UAV: Hunter and Seeker (Reproduced by permission of Denel Aerospace).

Source: Israeli Aircraft Industries
VTOL (Rotary-winged) Aircraft

• a) The Northrop-Grumman Firescout, which utilises the dynamic

components from a four-seat passenger helicopter within a new
airframe.
• b) The Schiebel Camcopter, which is an aircraft specifically
designed as a UAV.
• c) The Textron-Bell Sea Eagle, tilt-rotor aircraft, which uses the
technology from military and civilian passenger aircraft in the
design of a smaller UAV aircraft. Although this aircraft has been
operated in various trials, further development is currently on hold.
• d) The Beijing Seagull – a coaxial rotor helicopter a little larger
than the Camcopter.

• HTOL aircraft offer longer flight endurance than the VTOL aircraft.
This may be due as much to the difference in their operating roles
as to their fuel efficiencies
 Northrop Grumman Firescout
VTOL (Rotary-winged) Aircraft
AUM 1,432kg
Rotor Diameter 8.36m
Power 315kW
Speed 220km/hr
Radius of Action 275km
Flight Endurance 6hr
Payload Mass 273kg
Optical & IR TV
Laser Target Designator
Mine Detection System

AUM 200kg
Rotor Diameter 3.39m
Power 30kW
Speed 220 km/hr
Radius of Action 150km
Flight Endurance 6hr
Optional Payloads Mass 50kg
Optical & IR TV
Synthetic Aperture Radar

Schiebel Camcopter S100

 Close-range/Battlefield Aircraft:

• Carried out at low altitude and require a rapid response time,

probably poses the greatest challenge to the designer.

• too heavy to be handlaunched.

• require a rapid response time

• It is convenient to sub-divide this category into two sub-types.

• a) those systems which use aircraft that depend upon
additional equipment to enable their launch and/or
• recovery, i.e. non-VTOL;
• b) those systems which use aircraft that have a VTOL
capability
 All-Up-Mass 36kg
Wing span 2.42m
Wing area 1.73m2
Engine power 5.25kW
Wing loading 184N/m2
Span loading 120N/m
Cruise speed 125km/hr
Loiter speed 110km/hr
Mission radius 25km
Endurance 2 hours

All-Up-Mass 177kg
Wing span 5.5m
Wing Area 3.48m2
Engine power 19kW
Wing loading 500N/m2
Span loading 316N/m
Cruise speed 158km/hr
Loiter speed 126km/hr
Mission Radius 50km
Endurance 4
hours

Close-range UAV systems: Observer and Phoenix (Reproduced

by permission of CranfieldAerospace Ltd)
Comparison of Ramp-launched and VTOL Aircraft

(a) it is less vulnerable to enemy attack in the air and

less vulnerable on the ground as
it is more mobile with far less ground equipment and
personnel deployed

(b) VTOL will cost no more as a system to procure and

will cost less in operation through lower cost of
personnel;
(c) it has the advantage of lower response to air
turbulence and the versatility of hover and low-speed
flight.
 MUAV
• Deployed by no more than two persons.
• mass less than 10 kg (originally 5 kg),
• expected to be hand-launched and controlled
via a laptop computer with display showing
video images and navigation
• MUAV were originally expected to be hand-launched and
controlled via a laptop computer with display showing
video images and navigation

•
NAV (Nano air vehicles)

• sponsored by DARPA
• predicted to achieve an aircraft with dimensions of less than 5 cm in any direction,
have an
AUM of less than 10 g including a payload of 2 g.
• require the embodiment of nanotechnology within the subsystems such as computers,
Sensors, communications, structures, electric motors and batteries, etc.
• flying into and around the interior of buildings and natural structures, such as caves, to
provide information as to the position of the structure’s contents and condition.

Lockheed-Martin /
Prox-Dynamics “Pico-flyer” DARPA
“Maple-Seed”

Nano air vehicles. (Reproduced by permission of Proxdynamics)

UCAV (Unmanned combat air vehicles )
•
main aim is destroying enemy air-
defence systems in advance of attacks
by manned aircraft
• Examples of these, are the Northrop-
Grumman X-47B and the BAE Systems
 Novel Hybrid Aircraft Configurations
• The ideal aircraft is one which can take off and landvertically,
yet fly at high speeds.
• Three different approaches which are aimed at achieving
this.
• The Sky Tote
• This is essentially a tilt-wing-body aircraft.
• AeroVironment Inc. of the USA has a prototype Sky Tote UAV
under development
• Unlike the Convair and Lockheed prototypes which used a delta
wing of low aspect ratio, it uses a main wing of relatively high AeroVironment “Sky
aspect ratio and tail surfaces. Tote”
Honeywell T-Hawk Ducted-
Fan MAV
All-up-Mass 110kg
Wing Span 2.4m
Powerplant One i.c.engine ?
kW
Predicted Performance:-
Speed 370km/hr
Endurance 1.5hr
Range Unknown
Payload Mass 23kg
Honey well T-Hawk ducted fan MAV
Jet-lift Aircraft
• uses the jet-lift principle
• four separately directable nozzles
which, presumably, achieve both lift
and control functions.
Thank you