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Design of solar-powered aircraft configuration for reducing trim loss

  • Jianfeng Que
  • , Weijun Wang*
  • , Yu Wu
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Beihang University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The solar-powered aircraft with the static stability generally uses tail trim, which causes the trim loss. To address the problem of the aerodynamic trim loss, a new solar-powered aircraft configuration called “T” configuration was put forward. The general solar-powered aircraft configuration was summarized. The trimming principle by lowing center of gravity in the state of cruise flight was analyzed. The models of energy balance and mass analysis were built. A concept design method which is suitable for the new solar-powered aircraft configuration was introduced, and then the design parameters of the aircraft configuration were optimized. The results show that the solar-powered aircraft of “T” configuration not only has static stability, but also reduces the trim loss. In the state of cruise flight, the solar-powered aircraft of “T” configuration can decrease the flying power required in unit area by 6.2% compared with the normal solar-powered aircraft, which shows obvious application effect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1479-1485
Number of pages7
JournalBeijing Hangkong Hangtian Daxue Xuebao/Journal of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Volume42
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2016

Keywords

  • Aerodynamic trim loss
  • Concept design
  • Configuration design parameters
  • Flying power required
  • Solar-powered aircraft

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