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Novel Airframe Design For The Dual-Aircraft Atmospheric Platform Flight Concept, Eric Michael Mckee
Novel Airframe Design For The Dual-Aircraft Atmospheric Platform Flight Concept, Eric Michael Mckee
Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses
A high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial airframe was designed for the innovative Dual-Aircraft Atmospheric Platform flight concept that exploits stratospheric wind velocity gradients to remain aloft indefinitely. Classical aircraft preliminary design techniques and high-fidelity tools were used to establish a baseline configuration.
Performance characteristics of numerous airfoil profiles were evaluated with two-dimensional flow software in an effort to determine the best-candidate airfoil for the unique application. Vortex-Lattice method tools were used to investigate the sensitivity of three-dimensional design parameters upon overall vehicle aerodynamic performance and determine both static and dynamic stability characteristics of the airframe. Performance capabilities of the finalized airframe …