Estimation and flight verification of fuel consumption rate of small fixed-wing UAV for a long flight duration

Abstract

While the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is increasing in various fields, small fixed-wing UAVs are expected to be utilized in applications such as transportation, large area observation and wireless relay station because of its long flight duration. Breguet’s equation is generally used as an estimation formula of the duration. However, data of the specific fuel consumption to be used in the formula are most uncertain for small-fixed UAVs, which weigh from several to 10 kg. Therefore, this paper at first proposes the method to specify the specific fuel consumption from engine data sheet as well as propeller characteristics as to incorporate the rate into the duration estimation formula, and then describes its validity by flight experiments for small fixed-wing UAVs.