Stowed unmanned air vehicle engineering (SUAVE): Deployable wing design and testing

NextGen Aeronautics has developed a hybrid wing design utilizing a combination of rigid spar structure and inflatable airfoil sections to provide an extremely low stored volume deployable wing section for High Altitude, Long-Endurance (HALE) aircraft called Stowed Unmanned Air Vehicle Engineering (SUAVE). The development of SUAVE was broken down into various components and validated among various members of the SUAVE team. This paper will discusses the work and results presented by the SUAVE team as well as the final detailed design of SUAVE. The work conducted includes the design and construction of baffled wing sections and the subscale wing assembly and deployment tests conducted in both wind tunnel and altitude chamber to mimic the pressure and temperature conditions. The design discussion includes development of a COTS wing model, telopsar structure and inflatable wing sections, resulting in a complete wing design that is highly adaptable to a range for altitudes and any application where low-store-volume wings are desirable.