Conceptual design of a Blended Wing Body MALE UAV

The current work is an aerodynamic design study of a Blended Wing Body (BWB) Medium-Altitude-Long-Endurance (MALE) Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle (UAV). Using a combined approach of presizing tools and computational simulations, a step-by-step layout design study was conducted to define the key layout characteristics and select the optimal airframe-engine combination. Trade studies were also carried out to optimize the aerodynamic performance and stability. The traditional sizing and aerodynamic estimation methods were adopted to incorporate the characteristics of the BWB platform, whereas CFD computations were employed in order to calculate the aerodynamic and stability coefficients, during the layout comparison and trade studies. Drawings and tables are provided to show the progression of the design study at each stage. The performance specifications are also compared with a conventional UAV platform to point out the main advantages and disadvantages of the BWB for MALE UAV applications.