Development and Trend Analysis of Vertical Takeoff and Landing Fixed Wing UAV

Abstract

The vertical takeoff and landing(VTOL)fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)has many advantages,such as low requirements for takeoff and landing site,good maneuverability,high cruise speed and long endurance,etc.,which is a hot topic in the aviation field.The existing VTOL fixed wing UAV development status and their basic features around the world are described in this paper,and then the technical features faced by these different types of VTOL fixed wing UAV are analyzed.It indicates that the VTOL fixed wing UAV with higher cruise speed,longer battery life,and stronger ability of task load seems to be the main developing direction and inevitable trend in the future.Although the tilting rotor configuration and tail-seat configuration are still the mainstream configuration of the VTOL fixed wing UAV in nowadays,the distributed electric propulsion(DEP)VTOL fixed wing UAV technology will become the hottest issues in the field of aerospace,therefore,it is necessary to enhance the evolutionary research in the new-concept configurations and new principles of the high-performance VTOL fixed wing UAV.

Keywords

• vtol fixed wing uav
• development status
• tilting rotor configuration
• tail-seat configuration
• distributed electric propulsion