• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.15-21
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• 2021

Electrically powered airplanes can reduce CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel use and reduce airplane costs in the long run through efficient energy use. For this reason, advanced aviation countries such as the United States and the European Union are leading the development of innovative technologies to implement the full-electric airplane in the future. Currently, the research and development to convert existing two-seater engine airplanes to electric-powered airplanes are underway domestically. The airplane converted to electric propulsion is the KLA-100, which aims to carry out a 30-minute flight test with a battery pack installed using the engine mounting space and copilot space. The lithium-ion battery installed on the airplane converted to electric propulsion was designed with a specific power of 150Wh/kg, weight of 200kg, and a C-rate 3~4. This study confirmed the possibility of a 30-minute flight with a designed battery pack before conducting a flight test of a modified electrically propelled airplane. The battery performance was verified by dividing the 30-minute flight profile into start/run stage, take-off stage, climbing stage, cruise stage, descending stage, and landing/run stage. The final target of the 30-minute flight was evaluated by calculating the battery capacity required for each stage. Furthermore, the flight performance of the electrically propelled airplane was determined by calculating the flight availability time and navigation distance according to the flight speed.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.313-318
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• 2012

In the present study, the preliminary study on a small solar-powered RC airplane are performed for the development of a long-endurance solar-powered UAV. Solar energy enables the solar-powered UAV to fly longer or eternally. The solar-powered UAV transfers the solar energy to electric energy and this energy is used for the flight and the battery charge. To increase the flying time, the efficiency of the solar-cell power system must be increased and the required power for flight must be minimized. Hence, the system integration including solar cell and controller, the power system design, and the aerodynamic and structural designs of the UAV is very important. The present study have performed the design, manufacture, and flight test of the small solar-powered UAV for the preliminary study of the long-endurance solar-powered UAV. From this study, the system integration technology of the solar-powered UAV design is established, and the possibility and the issue points for the development of the long-endurance solar-powered UAV are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.708-713
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• 2013

KARI is developing a solar-electric powered HALE UAV(EAV-3). For demonstrating the technology, EAV-2H, a down-scaled version of EAV-3, is developed and after EAV-2H's initial flight test, the directional stability and control need to be improved. Thus, the vertical tail and rudder of EAV-2H are redesigned with Advanced Aircraft Analysis(AAA). Size of the rudder is increased from mean chord ratio of rudder to vertical tail, $C_r/C_v(%)=30$ to $C_r/C_v(%)=60$ and size of the vertical tail is reduced 15%. As a result, the directional control to side wind($v_1$) is improved to sideslip angle, ${\beta}(deg)=25^{\circ}$ and $v_1(m/sec)=3.54$. Also, variation of airplane side force coefficient with sideslip angle ($C_{y_{\beta}}$) and variation of airplane side force coefficient with dimensionless rate of change of yaw rate ($C_{y_r}$) are reduced 15% and 22%, respectively to minimize the effect of side wind. The empennage design of EAV-2H is verified with flight tests and applied to design of KARI's solar-electric-powered EAV-3.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Recently, development of long endurance electric powered airplane has been conducted worldwidely. Light structural weight of a main wing with sufficient structural integrity is essential for long endurance flight. Since a main wing with a slender spar can occur catastrophic fracture under the flight, it is important to establish a design and verification method for both the weight reduction and structural integrity. In this paper, structural design and analysis of the main wing of HALE UAV with tubular spar reinforced with a bulkhead were introduced. The static strength test of the main wing was performed to verify structural integrity under the static load. Then, the experimental result was compared with an analytical result from a finite element analysis. It was concluded that the developed light weight main wing would have sufficient structural integrity under the flight operation.