Performance-Based Preliminary Design and Selection of Aircraft Configurations for Unmanned Cargo Operations

This chapter deals with the selection process of three different aircraft configurations that are appropriate for automated cargo operations at low altitudes and above sparsely populated areas. The selection process starts with a conceptual assessment of various aircraft types with respect to their suitability as an unmanned cargo aircraft (UCA) and subject to a set of specific top-level aircraft requirements (TLAR’s). Based on the TLAR’s and further characteristics like fuel efficiency, cargo space accessibility, technical simplicity or size, five fixed-wing aircraft and two rotorcraft are chosen for further investigations. A subsequent preliminary design study dimensions the fixed-wing aircraft for different wing spans based on flight performance requirements according to the TLAR’s. A possible mean to enhance take-off and landing performances is the integration of additional small propellers and to make use of the propeller slipstream effect. Therefore, this chapter furthermore investigates the benefits from the integration of additional electrically driven propellers. The second part of the study focusses on the comparison of a helicopter and a gyrocopter, presenting performance key parameters and discussing their respective advantages and disadvantages. This chapter concludes with the selection of a twin boom aircraft of 16 m wing span, a box wing of 12 m span and a gyrocopter with a rotor radius of 7 m and small supplementary wings for the use as UCA.