Autors: Serbezov, V. S.
Title: Assessment of the fuel efficiency of unmanned cargo aircraft, based on general aviation aircraft
Keywords: unmanned cargo aircraft, fuel efficiency, energy efficiency

Abstract: This study was motivated by the globally increasing interest in unmanned cargo drones. It was focused particularly on cargo drones based on existing conventional general aviation airplanes and it should be regarded as a preliminary step towards the complex assessment of unmanned cargo aircraft transport systems. The aim was to estimate the fuel efficiency of such drones and to outline the optimums of some of their key design characteristics. A sample of 26 very light and light aircraft, and motorgliders was examined. The data was taken from open sources. The results outline that for best fuel economy the cargo drone should be a composite structure, piston engine airplane with wing aspect ratio of 10 to 12. Fuel efficiency estimation at distances of 500 to 2500 km shows that such cargo drones would be competitive with large piloted commercial cargo airplanes as well as with the road transport.

References

    Issue

    IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, Volume 664, 11th International Scientific Conference on Aeronautics, Automotive and Railway Engineering and Technologies (BulTrans-2019) 10–12 September 2019, Sozopol, Bulgaria, 2019, Bulgaria, DOI 10.1088/1757-899X/664/1/012006

    Вид: публикация в международен форум, публикация в реферирано издание, индексирана в Scopus