| Design and Flight Testing of Inflatable Wings with Wing Warping (2008) | |||||||||||||
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| The paper presents work on testing of inflatable wings for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Inflatable wing history and recent research is discussed. Design and construction of inflatable wings is then covered, along with ground and flight testing. Discussions include predictions and correlations of the forces required to warp (twist) the wings to a particular shape and the aerodynamic forces generated by that shape change. The focus is on characterizing the deformation of the wings and development of a model to accurately predict deformation. Relations between wing stiffness and internal pressure and the impact of external loads are presented. Mechanical manipulation of the wing shape on a test vehicle is shown to be an effective means of roll control. Possible benefits to aerodynamic efficiency are also discussed. INFLATABLE WINGS PREVIOUS WORK While the concept of inflatable structures for flight originated centuries ago, inflatable wings were only conceived and developed within the last few decades. While lighter-than-air vehicles also include inflatable structures, our focus herein is on inflatable structures used solely for lift generation. Various aspects of inflatable structures are discussed elsewhere [1] while a review of inflatable wing and related technologies is included in Cadogan et al. [2] To provide context for the results of this paper, a selection of design concepts is included below emphasizing recent developments in inflatable wings. Inflatable wings were successfully demonstrated in the | |||||||||||||
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