Conceptual design and flight test of two wingtip-docked multi-body aircraft

To overcome the drawbacks such as large wing deformations, poor performance encountering gusts, limits in taking off and landing, inconvenience of transportation of High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), a new conceptual aircraft called wingtip-docked Multi-Body Aircraft (MBA) has attracted lots of attentions. Aiming to investigate the feasibility of this concept, two UAV models were designed, manufactured and connected by a wingtip-docking mechanism, which only allows the relative roll motion between the two aircraft. The trim solution of the two connected aircraft is firstly obtained by solving the developed nonlinear flight dynamic equations, followed by the stability analysis based on the linearized model. The results show that the connected aircraft is inherently unstable and cannot fly without a reasonable flight control system. A set of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control laws was then developed and implemented in the two experimental aircraft. The success of the flight tests show that the flight control can effectively eliminate the unstable motion and the wingtip-docked MBA is controllable and feasible.