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This study aims to test a multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) paired with a thermal imaging camera for detecting big game species such as Eurasian elk, red deer, European roe deer and Eurasian wild boar.

The research work was carried out in the Czarna Bialostocka Forest District (Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland). A thermal imaging camera E20Tvx Yuneec with a view angle of 33° × 26.6° and a thermal sensor resolution of 640 × 512 pixels was selected for the research. The Yuneec H520E hexacopter was chosen as the lifting vehicle. The flights for the study were conducted between the autumn of 2021 and the winter of 2022. The UAV was flown at two different altitudes, 120 and 80 m above ground level, which provided a ground sampling distance of 11 and 7 cm, respectively.

The results so far have shown the potential of commercially available thermal imaging cameras for detecting and identifying big game species, such as Eurasian elk and red deer. Moreover, in the winter season of 2022 on the 7th and 13th of March, it was also possible to determine the sex of red deer distinguishing between males and females. The results of the survey made with the thermal camera were compared to the assessment from the standard method for the determination of the game population in the Czarna Bialostocka sub-district. In the case of red deer, the results of the research carried out during the winter exceed five times the numbers obtained as a result of the traditional inventory. That is most likely due to the gregarious occurrence of this species in the winter season.

The use of thermovision to estimate the population and sex of animals is a relatively new issue, especially in Poland, where the use of thermal imaging is not the official method of research of big game species yet.

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.

To provide an effective numerical method for analysis and design of aerodynamic characteristics of unmanned aerial vehicles basing on commercial package VSAERO.

Calculation was made by VSAERO package, which is based on a classical panel method enhanced on boundary layer method. Paper explains how to use efficiently VSAERO package, which utilizes advanced CAD techniques, in modern designing of unmanned aircraft.

During aerodynamic analysis of unmanned aircraft the computing cycle is repeated many times until the required accuracy is obtained and when the best performance of an aircraft is achieved. Design process depends on the number of iterations. If the preliminary configuration (the so‐called starting design point) is well selected and the aerodynamic analysis is completed in a relatively short time, then the overall design time will be shortened.

The panel method is very useful tool in spite of different limitations. For example, the Reynolds number has to be sufficiently high, angles of attack and sideslip have to be small enough. Computational process is relatively fast and the accuracy depends on the geometry representation. The boundary layer included into the computational model improves the accuracy of aerodynamic calculations. This methodology is limited to subsonic and low transonic speeds.

A very useful source of computational information and patterns to follow, especially for engineering students and engineers dealing with aerodynamic of unmanned aviation. Surface panel geometry can be transferred from UNIGRAPHICS via IGES files or can be generated from scratch using SPING or PEP software.

This paper offers a practical help for designers planning to develop a new unmanned platform. VSAERO package appeared to be a very useful tool for aerodynamic calculation in the full cycle design activity. This software utilizes the panel method enhanced on a boundary layer model for determination of the fundamental aerodynamic characteristic of an arbitrary aircraft. Presented paper shows a very efficient way how to compute the aerodynamics necessary for design of a new MALE class UAV.

This study seeks to present the initial requirements for medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV design of an increased reliability.

Shows and describes the successive design phases of PW‐103 MALE UAV.

The analysis of the performances of the PW‐103 UAV, powered by either a main or an auxiliary engine, demonstrated that auxiliary power unit improved flight safety significantly.

Successive MALE UAV configurations developed in the design process were aerodynamically more efficient than their predecessors.

This paper focuses mainly on the experimental and in‐flight spin investigations for an executive light airplane, named I‐23 and built in the Institute of Aviation (Warsaw, Poland). It is a single‐engine, all composite, straight wing, retractable undercarriage, conventional configuration and flight control system airplane. In‐flight spin tests confirmed good rudder and elevator effectiveness for spin recovery in a wide range of positions of the center of gravity. A typical time history of a spin entry and the developed spin and recovery is shown as well.