Abstract:

With the development of research on Micro Air Vehicle (MAV), it becomes even more urgent to increase flight time in order to complete actual tasks such as military surveillance. After analysis on typical MAVs, an endurance formula for electricdriven aircrafts aiming at the insufficiency endurance problem of a MAV flying at low Reynolds number is presented. Based on the formula, an optimal endurance planning method to design a power system of a MAV is proposed, which is also in accordance with a few previous research. The long endurance theory unveils the internal relationship among flight velocity, propulsion efficiency and flight time. Using different MAVs, the endurance formula is tested with practical flight data, and the optimal endurance planning method is proved to be useful. The preliminary tests have validated that the proposed long endurance theory for MAV is effective.

Key words: MAV,  , endurance , optimization,  , power , system , design,  , the , most , economical , velocity,  , low , power , consumption