Inflatable and warpable wings for meso-scale UAVs

The paper presents work on testing of inflatable wings for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Design and construction of inflatable wings is discussed, along with ground and flight testing. Predictions and correlations of the forces required to warp (twist) the wings to a particular shape and the aerodynamic forces generated by that shape change are presented. The focus is on characterizing the deformation of the wings and development of a system to deform the wrings inflight. Relations between wring stiffness and internal pressure and the impact of external loads are presented. Mechanical manipulation of the wring shape on a test vehicle is shown to be an effective means of roll control. Finally, damage resistance is shown from results of flight tests.