Engineering Commons^™

An Examination Into The Defining Characteristics Of Flexible Solar Aircraft Configurations Through Optimization, Taylor Mcdonnell, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the defining characteristics of various solar aircraft configurations through gradient-based multidisciplinary design optimization. We first present a general gradient-based solar aircraft optimization framework which accounts for nonlinear aeroelastic effects resulting from structural flexibility. We then apply this framework to several discrete SR- HALE aircraft geometric, structural, and propulsion system configuration choices to determine the defining characteristics of each configuration choice.