Blended Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (BWB UAV)

Prof. Mostafa El-Sayed & Prof. Fidel Khouli

2019-2020

Project Overview

2 DESIGNS

• Peregrine-1 UAV

• Peregrine-2 UAV

4 UNIQUE FEATURES

• Blended-Wing-Body Configuration

• Additive Manufacturing

• Multiscale Design Optimization

• Autonomous Flight

4 GOALS

• Design

• Build

• Test

• Fly

Blended Wing Body (BWB) UAV Concepts

The Peregrine-1 Concept & Mission Profile The Peregrine-2 Concept & Mission Profile

UAS Weight: 8.79 kg (19.4 lb)

Wingspan: 2.14 m

0-1 Warm up and takeoff:

• Mach 0.04 (24.2 kts)

• 8 m (26 ft)

1-2 Climb:

• Rate of climb: 4.5 m/s (14.8 ft/s)

2-3 Cruise:

• Mach 0.1 (67 kts)

• 100 m (328 ft)

• 20 mins

3-4 Loiter:

• Mach 0.05 (33 kts)

4-5 Landing:

• Rate of descent: 0.9 m/s (3 ft/s)

The Blended Wing Body (BWB) Configuration

Flying Wing Aircraft

Conventional “Tube-and-

Wing” Aircraft

Blended Wing Body Aircrafthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_wing, https://www.businessinsider.com/bombardier-c-series-37-billion-air-canada-order-falls-short-of-endorsement-it-needs-2016-2, https://www.wired.com/story/airbus-maveric-blended-wing-jet/

The Blended Wing Body (BWB) Configuration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-117_Nighthawk, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_X-47B

BWB Config For Military Applications

Northrop Grumman B-2 SpiritFirst Flight: 17 July 1989

Lockheed F-117 NighthawkFirst Flight: 18 June 1981

Northrop Grumman X-47B UCASFirst Flight: 04 February 2011

Northrop Grumman B-21 RaiderUnder Development

The Blended Wing Body (BWB) Configuration

http://www.twitt.org/BWBBowers.html

Potential Benefits of the BWB Config in Civil Aviation

The Blended Wing Body (BWB) ConfigurationPotential Benefits of the BWB Config in Civil Aviation

Multiscale Design Optimization (MSDO)

● Reduce weight of the UAV’s airframe● Increased load-carrying capacity● Mission specific design of the structure● Combination of topology optimization and lattice structure design

Targeted Webs of

Spars in Wings

Preliminary

Results

Additive Manufacturing● Reduced material wastage● Rapid implementation of design changes (rapid prototyping)● Enables use of MSDO and lattice structures● Fuse Deposition Modelling (FDM) employed

Autonomous Flight● Build & test fly aircraft models● Implement a clean sheet design of an Autopilot controller● Simulate various aircraft configurations & flight modes● Analyze flight data logs for improvements

Blended Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (BWB UAV)Progress to Date

YEAR PROGRESS/OBJECTIVE

1 (2017-2018) • Design of Peregrine-1 and Peregrine-2*• Preliminary analysis of Peregrine-1*

2 (2018-2019) • Review of Peregrine-1 design*• Analysis of Peregrine-1*• Developing the MSDO process*

3 (2019-2020) • Completing the MSDO process and finalize design of the Peregrine-1*

• Building the autonomous flight controller*• Manufacture and flight-testing of the Peregrine-1*

4 (2020-2021) • Review of Peregrine-2 design• Analysis of Peregrine-2• Manufacturing and flight-testing of Peregrine-2

* Denotes items that have been completed or that are in progress

Project Team Structure

12

Project Integration*

• Technical (x2)

• Administrative (x2)

Loads Engineering

Master-lines Engineering

Systems & Performance Engineering

Control Laws (x2)

Wind Tunnel Engineering

Avionics Engineering (x2)

Composite Manufacturing (x2)

Additive Manufacturing

Structure/Stress Engineering (x2)

Assembly Engineering (x2)

* Project Integrators also take on a technical role

Questions?

13