Designing of a fixed-wing vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle

In this study, an electric-powered fixed-wing vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle design was carried out in four basic stages: determination of design requirements, conceptual design, preliminary design and detail design. As a starting point, the VTOL aircraft configurations in the literature are examined with all their pros and cons. Critical performance data of recently produced fixed-wing VTOL UAVs were compiled and presented. In line with the obtained data and given mission profile, target design parameters were determined. During the conceptual design phase, different wing and tail configurations were discussed and the most suitable profile was tried to be selected considering that it could realize the vertical flight phase. In the preliminary design phase, efficient wing airfoil selection that will provide horizontal flight was made with the help of numeric analyzes. In addition, the design of the propulsion system was carried out separately for horizontal and vertical flight phases. The required thrust force values to select the electric motors and propellers were realized by the appropriate assumptions in the literature. In the detail design phase, the final design geometry of the aircraft was given in detail. The final design was analyzed numerically and the obtained results were compared with the analytical results. It was seen that the obtained data meet the flight performance criteria determined for the aircraft.