Aeromechanical characterization of a small-scale unmanned electric aircraft

The determination of the main mechanical and aerodynamic properties of a given aircraft is necessary for the prediction of the performances and the static and dynamic characteristics of the aircraft. For this reason, in the present work an aeromechanical characterization of a small-scale unmanned electric aircraft, corresponding to a 1:5 model of a Cessna 177 Cardinal, is performed. The aeromechanical characterization is done with a specialized software, Advanced Aircraft Analysis (AAA) by DARcorporation, and the software results are used for the aircraft performance analysis and the battery sizing. Afterwards, following the Model Based Design (MBD) approach, an aircraft simulator on Simulink has been created with the development of four flight control systems. Finally, with the designed control systems, an autonomous guidance system able to follow a desired flight path and reach the defined waypoints coordinates is constructed. The last work carried out in the present thesis is an experimental campaign with the aim to determine the battery power curve and the drag coefficients to compare and verify the theoretical software results with the experimental ones.