Towards Development of a Dynamic-Soaring, Morphing-Wing UAV

We address the initial stages of the development of a dynamic-soaring capable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with morphing wing technology optimized for long-duration flight with minimal on-board power consumption. The proposed aircraft model is designed to include the effects of a controlled vehicle morphing using telescoping wing. The current paper focuses on preparation of a hybrid aerodynamic model for the flight simulation of the vehicle. Such variable-fidelity model efficiently combines results from a potential flow solver and RANS simulations, validated using available experimental data. The effects of the morphing wing on the vehicle aerodynamic performance are examined for the selected critical stages of the dynamic-soaring maneuver and illustrate the possible benefits of the proposed morphing-wing design.