Wind Tunnel Test of a Twin-Engined Canard Configured Mini-Remotely Piloted Vehicle.

摘要

Many military applications are being found for small remotely piloted vehicles (Mini-RPVs). Professor Harold C. Larsen of the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has designed one such RPV. Under his direction a team of AFIT graduate students have studied and developed his preliminary design. From this design an aircraft has been built and flown. Flights of the original aircraft pointed out the need for larger engines and increased elevator power. The aircraft was redesigned by decreasing wing camber, increasing elevator size, and replacing the original 1.2 BHP engines with 2 BHP engines. A 1/3 scale wind tunnel model was modified to incorporate these design changes. Tests were made in the AFIT five-foot wind tunnel to determine static stability and control characteristics of the modified aircraft. This study included testing of the yaw, pitch, and roll axis characteristics. Limitations of the three component balance in the wind tunnel necessitated testing in each of the individual axis separately.