2nd IFAC Workshop on Research, Education and Development of

Unmanned Aerial Systems

November 20-22, 2013. Compiegne, France

Concept design for an unmanned aerial

vehicle that will perform exploration
missions in Colombia ?
Miller A. Rocha ∗ Leonardo E. Solaque, PhD ∗∗
∗
Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Bogotá, Colombia (Tel:+571
6500000; e-mail: miller.rocha@unimilitar.edu.co).
∗∗
Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Bogotá, Colombia (Tel:+571
6500000; e-mail: leonardo.solaque@unimilitar.edu.co).

Abstract: One of the major disadvantages due to the topography of Colombia is the exploration
and monitoring of power transmission lines and pipelines, the difficult access to the area by
the human being does not allow monitoring to enable agile decision to give a prompt and
quick solution to problems presented, for this reason the development of Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles has become a solution that allows the exploration of inaccessible areas. This article
provides a conceptualization of the model of a UAV, describing the state of art of similar
projects for surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, checking the type of aircraft to be used
that best perform in flight and stability according to the geography of the country. We present
a comparison and analysis of airfoils, type of propulsion system, airframe design and vehicle
control surfaces and compare the advantages of a new design against the current Universidad
Militar Nueva Granada model. The conceptualization presented here is the start of an initial
design and development of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that will perform surveillance and
exploration missions.

1. INTRODUCTION The reason of the development of unmanned aerial vehicles

UAV is an acronym for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, which
is an aircraft with no pilot on board. UAVs can be re-
mote controlled aircraft or can fly autonomously based
on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic
automation systems. UAV [2012] In contrast to a missile,
The UAVs are capable to be controlled, have a sustained
level of flight and can be powered by jet or propeller driven.
Because UAVs are converted into complex systems include
ground stations and other elements, the FFA (Federal Avi-
ation Administration) has changed the term ”Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle” to ”Unmanned Aircraft System” with the
acronym UAS.
Actually in Colombia, the research of UAV has become
an important theme to be considered, in order to give
a solution to industry requirements that need to make
photometry and explorations labors, that is why the dif-
ferent kind of research group in our country are developing
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that performs the industry
requirements, like design low consumption, light weight
and long flight time vehicles. According to this, the re-
search group from La Universidad Militar Nueva Granada,
GIDAM, are developing an unmanned aircraft prototype
with aerodynamic characteristics that allow flights at low
velocities, low energy consumption and a payload of 3 Kg,
capable to make exploration missions over the electrical
energy network.
? This work was supported in part by COLCIENCIAS and the
Universidad Militar Nueva Granada.
to perform exploration labors, impact in the reduction of
risk inspection by human being in hard to access areas.
Other benefit for the uses of that vehicles is the fast
and major covering of the area, minimizing displacements
costs. As an exploration of the area more often helps to
prevent natural disasters or act more quickly to them.
Many studies around the world have been conducted in
order to implement UAVs to enable the development of
work outside the military labors, but focused on com-
mercial applications that provided solutions to industrial
requirements like photogrammetry and aerial exploration.
Funaki [2008] in his article presents the characteristics that
mus have an UAV for a successful flight for the exploration
of the Antarctica, indicating that the aircraft must be
able to maintain a long autonomously controlled flight
at low temperatures, it must be easily transported out
and into the flight stations, to have good payload capacity
with a strong and long structure, propelled by a powerful
engine and easy operation by a small group of techni-
cians. Although the Antarctica flight environment does
not correspond with the flight environment in Colombia,
the payload characteristics, flight speed and run-time shall
be taken into account for the development of the aircraft
around this project. Funaki in this research developed six
different fixed wing aircraft designs, with different payload
capacity and size, so for our development will be taken the
recommendations and conclusions described in his paper,
to improve the design and development time.
Centisoy [2012] indicates that the aerodynamic design
main objective is to choose the most suitable propulsion
system and to minimize air resistance generating enough

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Element Estimated weight
Electric motor 700 g
Electronics 200 g
Batteries 1200 g
Servo-motors 200 g
Estructure 4700 g
Total 7000 g
Table 1. Estimated unloaded weight of the
model
lift for flight, with a light and suitable structure. Also
this author comments in his document the criteria for
engine selection, they must produce the power required
to lift, be lighter in weight, mechanically strong and have
a cooling system effective for long flights. In his project,
Centisoy show the design of the fuselage as a rectangular
prism with rounded nose and a rear section with tapering
thickness for high aerodynamic efficiency, the advantage
that he presents for this airframe design is the low friction
coefficient because of its resemblance to a drop of water. In
our project as a start point the fuselage configuration will
be a square cross section due to its easy construction and
the spaciousness. In order to improve the drag rounded
shapes in front of fuselage will be considered as was
exposed by Centisoy.
In order to validate the model is necessary it is suggested
to make simulation using CFD software, this is useful
to determine the lift and drag coefficients in order to
improve the aerodynamic design of the aerial vehicle before
the building and mechanical assemble. Due to we do not
have the facility to make wind tunnel test and according
to Centisoy [2012] it is important to use CFD software
in order to validate the aerodynamic efficiency of the
unmanned aerial vehicle designed.
2. UAV CONCEPTUAL DESIGN
For the conceptualization of an unmanned aerial vehicle,
it is necessary to clarify about the composition of a model
for its main parts. The fuselage is the part where the
actuators, batteries, electronics and others are arranged,
it is very important that this part is streamlined in order
to obtain the lowest air resistance possible. The wings
are mainly the part that creates the lift that allows the
model to fly, on these surfaces is necessary to locate the
control surfaces that allow functions of take off, flight and
landing. The propulsion system provides the energy for
the aircraft movement through the air flow. The tail is
mainly composed of a vertical stabilizer or elevator and
horizontal stabilizer or rudder. Finally there is the landing
gear which cushions the impact of landing and allows the
maneuverability of the aircraft on the ground. Muoz [2012]
First step in the conceptualization of the aircraft is to
determine the functional performance, for which is in-
tended that the selected air vehicle meets the minimum
requirements needed to develop exploration missions and
aerial surveillance, so we define the mission profile, in order
to determinate the operational normal conditions of flight
as (1)takeoff, (2)climb, (3)cruise, (4)loiter and (5)land, as
is shown in figure 1 the chosen mission profile is a simple
cruise according to Raymer [1992]. Another important
aspect to consider, such low speed flight (18m/s - 20m/s),
194
Fig. 1. UAV Mission profile
a payload of 3Kg, high aerodynamic performance and
easy to transport and assembly model by the operators. A
calculation of an estimated unloaded weight of the model
is 7Kg which includes the mechanical structure, batteries,
motor and electronics as can be seen in table 1. As it
was mentioned before the payload is 3Kg which is usually
used for surveillance camera and sensors, so the estimated
weight for aircraft calculations is 10Kg.
2.1 Airfoil selection
One of the most important decisions when developing a
fixed wing aircraft is airfoil selection, this should have
features that allows behavior according to flight conditions
and the type of model selected. To understand the profile
selection there must be clear some basic concepts of
aerodynamics focusing on coefficients that determine the
sustainability and efficiency of the selected airfoil. These
coefficients are Cl defined as the lift coefficient, Cd as drag
coefficient and Cm defined as pitching moment coefficient.
These coefficients depend on certain factors that are not
directly related to the airfoil, which are: flight speed, wing
area, wing chord, angle of attack (AoA), aspect ratio,
platform and Reynolds number. Lennon [1996]
For the airfoil selection it is necessary to compare the polar
curves, so the software selected to make this comparison
was XFLR5 that allows the user to generate the polar
graph for a different kind of airfoil. It must be take into
account that these analysis is for an infinite wing and a
two dimension air flow. For this project the airfoil family
selected is Eppler, selecting references E168, E197, E214,
which are suggested for the design of radio controlled
model aircraft.
The figure 2 shows graphically the comparison of the
airfoils which can be appreciated that the E197 has a low
drag coefficient, high lift coefficient with a smooth stall
angle approximation, but with high moment coefficient
with negative rotation.
After selected the airfoil, we proceed to compare the
infinite wing with a real wing design, for this case we have
analyzed a straight wing. This comparison determine the
real wing efficiency respect to the infinite wing, the figure
3 shows the polar graph for lift coefficient comparison
obtained by XFLR5 software. As is shown the real straight
wing has an efficiency around 60%, which is necessary
to determine the approximate size of the model. It is
important to notate that the efficiency obtained with
XFLR5 software is an approximation, for better results
is recommended to do wind tunnel experiments that take
into account the fluid viscosity. Due to in our University
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Fig. 4. Polar graph Cl vs. Cd

2.2 Wing design

In order to perform the calculations for the wing design,

first we calculate the wing area by the use of equation
1, where considering air density (ρ = 0.86Kg/m3 ) to
3000m of height respect to sea level, air temperature of
10◦ C and relative velocity of v = 18m/s, the dynamic
pressure is q = 139.32P a. According to the design weight
of the aircraft (10kg) and the 90% design lift coefficient
Cl = 0.861, the wing area is S = 0.989m2 . According to
Raymer [1992] the design lift coefficient Cl was obtained
graphically, which is the lift coefficient where the airfoil has
the best lift-to-drag ratio (L/D). This is shown in figure
4.
 
1 W
S= (1)
q Cl

For aircraft design an aspect ratio was selected of 10,

according to Lennon [1996] this aspect ratio corresponds
to a trainer model, because we need to generate high lift
by reducing the induced drag. By the use of the equation
2, the wing span is obtained b = 2.99m.
√
b = S × AR (2)

To obtain a better performance of the wing according to its

Fig. 2. Comparative polar graphs of Eppler airfoils efficiency, a tapered wing is chosen for design. To size the
wing it is necessary to choose a taper ratio that defines the
relationship between the root tip and the chord tip. The
taper ratio is 0.5 and by the use of equations 3 and 4 the
complete dimensions of the wing were obtained. Cr = 0.4m
Ct = 0.2m
2S
Cr = (3)
(λ + 1) b
Ct = λCr (4)

Control surfaces calculation The principal function of

Fig. 3. Comparison graph airfoil E197 for a real wing vs.
ideal wing
does not have a wind tunnel, we will use CFD software to
obtain better results.
aileron is the lateral control of the aircraft. Structurally
the ailerons are the part of the wing located at the end of
the wing near each chord tip, they are usually symmetrical
and with the same geometries. Any change in the aileron
geometry will be reduced in roll angular velocity, which
makes a change in roll angle. Sadraey [2012]
In aileron process design, it is necessary to calculate four
parameters according to Sadraey [2012] design these are:
1. Aileron area Sa ; 2. Relation chord/span Ca /ba ; 3.
max aileron deflection ±δAmax ; 4. Location of the aileron
respect to span bai . The recommended typical design

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Fig. 5. H-Tail configuration
values are Sa /S = 0.05 − 0.1, ba /b = 0.2 − 0.4, Ca /Cx =
0.15 − 0.25, bai /b = 0.6 − 0.8, δAmax = ±30◦ . According
to this the calculated dimension for the wing aileron are
Sa = 0.09m2 , ba = 1.2m, bai = 1.8m, Cra = 0.1m,
Cta = 0.05m.
According to Reyes [2009] recommendations, is not a good
idea to extend ailerons all the way out to the wing tips.
First of all, they will not be very effective due to the vortex
at the tip. They are more likely to get damaged if the wing
tip hits the ground, and they can lead to flutter.
2.3 Tail design
The selection of the configuration of the tail is usually due
to aesthetic, structural and weight, but has a little influ-
ence over drag. The basic function the tail in the model
aircraft is balanced, so that different tail configurations
should have equal efficacy and approximately the same
area. If is a inverted T-tail, should be noted that is the
least efficient of all, in the lost the horizontal stabilizer
blocks the rudder and impedes an active recovery. The T-
tail has a weak structure that requires more reinforcements
and thus more weight on the rear of the aircraft, as well
as a V-tail. Aeromodelismo [2008]
For this case of study was selected the H-tail or twin
tail show in figure [fig:H-Tail-configuration], in this con-
figuration the vertical drift acts like winglets producing a
positive interference in the horizontal plane so that the
sum of the areas is less than a V-tail o T-tail instead there
is less drag. According to the propulsion system selection,
H-tail configuration has better control over the flow of air
that passes over the control surfaces.
To size the horizontal tail of the aircraft, it is important
to take into a count the volumetric coefficient, which must
be into a range of Vh = 0.3...0.6. If Vh is to small, the
pitch behaviour of the aircraft will be sensible to the
location of gravity center. By the use of equation 5, the
lh was obtained using Lennon [1996] recommendation that
indicates the horizontal tail area is approximately the 20%
of the wing area and suggests to use an aspect ratio for
the horizontal tail between 4 - 5. The obtained horizontal
tail area is Sh = 0.18m2 , the length of the arm is lh = 1m
and the horizontal tail span bh = 0.95m. By the use of the
equation 6 the horizontal tail chord is ch = 0.19m.
Sh .lh
Vh ≡ (5)
S.c
2Sh
Ch = (6)
(λh + 1) bh
196
Fig. 6. Pusher propulsion system
The main function of the vertical tail is to stabilize yaw,
for its design is necessary to notate that the volumetric
coefficient of vertical tail must be between Vv ≡ 0.02...0.05,
a very low Vv will not allow a good control of rudder
direction. To obtain the dimension of vertical tail it is
assumed lh = lv , according to Raymer [1992] design
recommendations the selected Vv = 0.04, and by the
calculation the vertical tail area is Sv = 0.11m. For an H
tail he sum of each vertical tail area must be the total area
calculated. According to Sadraey [2012], the aspect ratio
must be between 1-2, applying the equation 7 the vertical
tail span is bv = 0.23m. We select a taper ratio of λv = 0.7
and applying the equations 8 and 9, the obtained root and
tip vertical tail chords are cvr = 0.27m and cvt = 0.19m.
p
bv = Sv × ARv (7)
2Sv
Cvr = (8)
(λv + 1) bv
Cvt = λv Cvr (9)
2.4 Propulsion system selection
According to the design of the model is feasible to select
the position of the engine between the conventional (front)
or pusher (rear) show in figure 6, that configuration allows
certain advantages over the conventional configuration
as is to keep clean front of the aircraft, in order to
install cameras and sensors, an additional advantage is
in the case of manoeuvrability because the generated
airflow is not projected onto the control surfaces, which
makes that at certain times more control over the flying
platform. Respect the aircraft aerodynamics, the engine
in conventional configuration receives the air without any
obstacle but releases the flow over the wing and fuselage
generating more air resistance and making the incident
flow turbulent while the pusher configuration allows a
laminar flow over the wing thereby reducing the resistance
in the area which precedes by the suction of the propeller.
Another advantage of the pusher configuration is that the
engine is not exposed to a possible direct hit to the ground
which could cause shaft breakage or dubbing. Nuez [2005]
Another important point to be taken into account in
the design is the centered. In the case of a conventional
configuration, the engine is a good counterweight for a
proper center, because it makes the battery to be located
on the center of gravity, having the advantage of being
able to use different types of batteries with different
weights without affecting the centring. While in pusher
configuration the battery is responsible for the correct
centering model, because the rear engine emphasizes the
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Fig. 7. Trycile landing gear configuration
weight on the tail, which make the distribution of batteries
and components in front in order to make a counterweight
to perform a better location of the center of gravity.
2.5 Landing gear selection
Depending on aircraft model and the mission to perform,
it is important to make a selection of the landing gear
to use. Within the different configurations is selected the
tricycle show in figure 7, since it presents greater stability
in landing by having a wheel in the front and two on
the center of the wings, but this configuration has the
disadvantage of increased drag and weight in the aircraft
nose, but for our propulsion system selected will balance
the gravity center.[Gutierrez2009]
Among the other studied configurations the conventional
allows accurate takeoff and landing on short track, fea-
turing low drag as it has no wheel on nose, but with the
disadvantage of high possibility of losing control in the
take off and overturning during maneuvers on earth.
2.6 Control surfaces and servo distribution
To control the flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle it uses
the control surfaces, these allow the modification of the
aerodynamic forces on the model by causing an imbalance
in magnitude, causing the aircraft to move on one or more
of its axes, increasing the lift or resistance. within the
control surfaces there are ailerons which are located on
the back of the end of each wing, whose actuation causes
movement of roll of the aircraft around its longitudinal
axis. The elevator located on the horizontal tail and takes
care of the pitching motion of the model aircraft on its
transverse axis. Finally the rudder which is mounted on
rear of the vertical tail, moving winked causes a movement
of the aircraft about its vertical axis. Each of these control
surfaces is actuated by a servomotor, which is to be
located so as to keep the center of gravity for stable flight.
Figure 8 shows the distribution of the servomotors on the
model.Muoz [2012]
3. CONCLUSION
One of the major drawbacks due to the topography of
Colombia is the exploration and monitoring of power
transmission lines and pipelines, as the difficult access to
the area by the human being does not allow monitoring to
enable agile decision making give prompt quick solution to
the problems presented, for this reason the development
of unmanned aerial vehicles has become a solution that
197
Fig. 8. UAV servo distribution
allows the exploration of inaccessible areas, so the devel-
opment of unmanned aerial platforms has been growing.
Therefore the development of an aircraft model concept
allows academic development in the area of mechanical
design, aerodynamics and aeronautics.
The conceptual model selected, is a starting point for
mechanical design and detailed for each of the aircraft,
focusing on the development of the model where it is
important to note that having an initial concept of this,
clears many drawbacks that may occur during the final de-
sign thus speeding the manufacture and implementation.
the concept design of a UAV, is a complex process which
requires studies of aerodynamics, stability an control on
the proposed model.
It is important to notate that the conceptual design was
not selected any type of material for manufactures of the
model, during the development of the final model there
should be selected between composites and traditional
materials.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada
and COLCIENCIAS, for financial and logistical support
for the project.
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Minoru Funaki. Outline of a small unmanned aerial vehicle
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Andy Lennon. R/C Model aircraft design. 1996.
Miguel Muoz. Manual de vuelo, 2012.
www.manualvuelo.com.
Eduardo Nuez. Alas volantes, 2005. www.alasvolantes.es.
Daniel Raymer. Aircraft design: a conceptual approach.
1992.
Carlos Reyes. Model Airplane Design Made Easy. 2009.
Mohammad Sadraey. Aircraft Design: A Systems Engi-
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