UAV DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION AERODYNAMICS - AN ADE EXPERIENCE

摘要

UAVs are becoming an essential part of the modern defense forces world over in the recent years. They are widely used for surveillance, reconnaissance, target for missiles and combat. They are available in various weight classes from few kilograms to tons. Apart from design of aircraft, establishing an accurate aero data base for control law design for the aircraft is a main challenge in itself. Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) is involved in the design and development of many UAVs for the last 30 plus years and has experienced several challenging design and engineering problems. Over the years, various UAVs like Ulka, Sparrow, Lakshya, and Nishant for different mission requirements have been designed and developed. The evolution of design methodology in ADE and the present configuration design activities of UAVs and aircraft stores separation studies with a focus on CFD are discussed in this paper.