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The purpose of this paper is to mount Gurney flaps at the trailing edges of the canards and investigate their influence on aerodynamic characteristics of a simplified canard-configuration aircraft model.

A force measurement experiment was conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel. Hence, the height and shape effects of the Gurney flaps on the canards were investigated.

Gurney flaps can increase the lift and pitching-up moment for the aircraft model tested, thereby increasing the lift when trimming the aircraft. The dominant parameter to influence aerodynamic characteristics is the height of Gurney flaps. When the flap heights are the same, the aerodynamic efficiency of the triangular Gurney flaps is higher than that of the rectangular ones. Moreover, the canard deflection efficiency will be reduced with Gurney flaps equipped, but the total aerodynamic increment is considerable.

This paper helps to solve the key technical problem of increasing take-off and landing lift coefficients, thus improving the aerodynamic performance of the canard-configuration aircraft.

This paper recommends to adopt triangular Gurney flaps with the height of 3 per cent chord length of the canard root (c) for engineering application.

This paper presents first sight on the longitudinal control strategy for an aircraft in the tandem wing configuration. It is an aerodynamic strongly coupled configuration that needs a lot of detailed aerodynamic analysis which describes the mutual impact of the main parts of the aircraft. The purpose of this paper is to build the numerical model that allows to make an analysis of necessary flaps (front and rear) deflection and prepare the control strategy for this kind of aircraft.

Aircrafts’ aerodynamic characteristics were obtained using the MGAERO software which is a commercial computing fluid dynamics tool created by Analytical Methods, Inc. This software uses the Euler flow model. Results from this software were used in the static stability evaluation and trim condition analysis. The trim conditions are the outcome of the optimisation process whose goal was to find the best front and rear flap deflection to achieve the best lift to drag (L/D) ratio.

The main outcome of this investigation is the proposal of strategy for the front and rear flap deflection which ensured the maximum L/D ratio and satisfied the trim condition. Moreover, the analysis of the mutual impact of the front and rear wings and the analysis of the control surface impact on the aerodynamic characteristic of the aircraft are presented.

In terms of aerodynamic computation, MGAERO software uses an inviscid flow model. However, this research is for the conceptual stage of the design and the MGAERO software grantee satisfied accurate respect to relatively low time of computations.

The ultimate goal is to build an aircraft in a tandem wing configuration and to conduct flying tests or wind tunnel tests. The presented result is one of the milestones to achieve this goal.

The aircraft in the tandem wing configuration is an aerodynamic-coupled configuration that needs detailed analysis to find the mutual interaction between the front and rear wings. Moreover, the mutual impact of the front and rear flaps is necessary too. Obtaining these results allowed this study to build the numerical model of the aircraft in the tandem wing configuration. It allows to find the best strategy of flap deflection, which allows to obtain the maximum L/D ratio and satisfy the trim condition.

The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a Matlab/Simulink‐based simulation environment for the design and testing of indirect and direct adaptive flight control laws with fault tolerant capabilities to deal with the occurrence of actuator and sensor failures.

The simulation environment features a modular architecture and a detailed graphical user interface for simulation scenario set‐up. Indirect adaptive flight control laws are implemented based on an optimal control design and frequency domain‐based online parameter estimation. Direct adaptive flight control laws consist of non‐linear dynamic inversion performed at a reference nominal flight condition augmented with artificial neural networks (NNs) to compensate for inversion errors and abnormal flight conditions following the occurrence of actuator or sensor failures. Failure detection, identification, and accommodation schemes relying on neural estimators are developed and implemented.

The simulation environment provides a valuable platform for the evaluation and validation of fault‐tolerant flight control laws.

The modularity of the simulation package allows rapid reconfiguration of control laws, aircraft model, and detection schemes. This flexibility allows the investigation of various design issues such as: the selection of control laws architecture (including the type of the neural augmentation), the tuning of NN parameters, the selection of parameter identification techniques, the effects of anti‐control saturation techniques, the selection and the tuning of the control allocation scheme, as well as the selection and tuning of the failure detection and identification schemes.

The novelty of this research efforts resides in the development and the integration of a comprehensive simulation environment allowing a very detailed validation of a number of control laws for the purpose of verifying the performance of actuator and sensor failure detection, identification, and accommodation schemes.

Reports on the MSc group design project of students at the College of Aeronautics, aerospace vehicle design in 1995. The students worked on advanced short take‐off and vertical landing of a combat aircraft. Details the project showing aircraft dimensions and design. Full assessment of the results is pending, but outlines a number of problems faced by the students.

Unconventional configuration aircrafts are not often designed because of many problems, mainly with stability and trim. However, they could be very promising. The problems can be compensated by extraordinary performance and some flying characteristics. The three-surface aircraft, presented in the paper, is such a configuration – problems and profits are both present, but advantages seem to be more prevalent. This paper aims to present main assumptions for a new, three-surfaces aircraft design, its evaluation according to flying quality requirements and the discussion on selected performance characteristics. The paper completes with the first experimental results of flight tests of a 40 per cent scaled model.

Aerodynamic computations were made using panel method code (KK-AERO, PANUKL). Stability analysis was done using SDSA package, developed within the SimSAC project.

Initial design assumptions and numerical analysis results were proven during flight tests.

The paper contains results of numerical analysis, which were crucial in designing the layout of the new, three-surface aircraft.

This paper presents an original approach to design a new, unconventional aircraft. The approach and results could be useful in other projects.

To provide an overview of design activity undertaken within the CAPECON Project supported by European Commission and devoted to development of HALE UAV being proposed for long endurance flights.

Selected research methods devoted mainly to the improvement of dynamic stability of unmanned aerial vehicles have been described and their application into design optimisation are shown. The main goal of this research was to improve an economic effectiveness, safety and a modular arrangement of on‐board systems, especially with respect to sensors being easy replaceable for different missions.

The research and design process included an aerodynamic optimisation of swept wing, stability analysis, weight balance, some on‐board redundant systems, reliability and maintability analysis, safety improvement, cost and performance optimisation. A number of design iterations were performed to achieve the required aircraft performances and characteristics. This iteration number was relatively moderate (four cycles only) due to employing a modern software and the essential role of theoretical analysis performed parallel to the design and redesign process.

Analysis and design methodology is limited to surveillance, high altitude long endurance platforms, where the design objectives are high reliability, safety and low cost of production and operation.

A very useful source of design information and patterns to follow, especially for engineering students and engineers dealing with unmanned aviation.

This paper offers practical help for designers being involved with an unmanned platform to be well optimised for high altitude long endurance mission, giving a lot of practical information about many aspects of longitudinal and lateral stability of Blended Wing Body configuration, on‐board sensors and systems integrated with loading structure.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the aerodynamics of wing in ground effect with tiltable endplates for a new type wing‐in‐ground effect (WIG) craft.

The concept of tiltable endplates was implemented into the design of a WIG craft. Numerical investigation on aerodynamics of the tiltable endplate was carried out. The endplate effect on aerodynamics was deeply investigated with a rectangular wing at given angle of attack and flight height. The size of endplate relative to whole wing was then studied based on given endplate deflection angle and flight height. Finally, aerodynamics and flow of tiltable endplate in various flight heights and endplate deflection angles were analyzed. Aerodynamics, pressure and wingtip vortex were recorded in the study.

Endplate influences development of wingtip vortex and improves aerodynamics. Tiltable endplate can enable WIG craft to yield improved aerodynamic performance and worthwhile economy improvements on long‐distance flights in and out of ground effect (OGE).

The results are entirely based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The gap between “numerical world” and “real world” depends on development and appropriate application of CFD. The current work shows further understanding of ground effect and aerodynamics of wing in ground effect.

The aerodynamics and aerodynamic optimization of wing in ground effect are of the great importance for WIG craft. The work improves the design and research on aerodynamics of WIG craft.

The concept of tiltable endplate for a new type wing in ground effect allows WIG craft to achieve good aerodynamic performance not only in ground effect but also in OGE. This was studied and proved in the current work.

Development of the Lockheed supersonic transport has followed the basic philosophy that an advance in air travel in terms of speed and economics should be accompanied by similar advances in aeroplane safety and flying qualities. To achieve these objectives, Lockheed's SST design work has been concentrated for many years on the development of a fixed‐wing design. The present configuration—called a double delta—provides a simple high lift system with low wing loading, excellent low speed stability and control, and large favourable ground effects in landing, with inherent advances in operational simplicity and safety.

Describes preliminary structural design work on a notional uninhabited tactical aircraft (UTA), carried out at Cranfield University. UTAs are seen as an important future element of military fleets. A notional baseline requirement was derived, leading to the evolution of a design solution. The basic requirements for such a UTA are naturally highly classified but, although industry has been hesitant to comment, the baseline requirements and design solution developed herein are believed to be reasonable.

Reports on the MSc group design project of students at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University. Details the design of the aircraft systems and their reliability and maintainability.