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Abstract:The field of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) is currently undergoing a noteworthy expansion. The diverse types of missions that these aircraft can accomplish, both in military and civil environments, have motivated an increase of interest in their study and applications. The methods chosen to develop this study are based on the statistical analysis of a database including numerous models of RPAS and the estimation of different correlations in order to develop a design method for rapid sizing of H-tail RPAS. Organizing the information of the database according to relevant characteristics, information relative to the state-of-the-art design tendencies can be extracted, which can serve to take decisions relative to the aerodynamic configuration or the power plant in the first phases of the design project. Furthermore, employing statistical correlations estimated from the database, a design method for rapid-sizing of H-tail RPAS has been conducted, which will be focused on the sizing of the wing and tail surfaces. The resulting method has been tested by applying it to an example case so as to validate the proposed procedure.

Purpose -The purpose of this study of which this work is only the first part, is the development of conceptual design tools to perform an optimized design of the rear fuselage and tail surfaces. The development of a new and extensive database of transport aircraft and an analysis of certain general, rear fuselage and horizontal stabilizer parameters of the aircraft are presented in this paper. Design/methodology/approach -In addition to the development of a comprehensive high accurate database, linear and non-linear correlations between different parameters of the aircraft have been established. Data were analyzed using comparison criteria between aircraft database based on the mission, the number of engines installed or arrangement of the tail surfaces. Findings -It has been possible to obtain very relevant, linear and non-linear correlations for critical design parameters to optimize the design of the rear fuselage and horizontal tail. Research limitations/implications -In the case of the tail cone, the data have not yielded significant correlations. On the other hand, there are some regressions that do not work well in some cases and for which it would be good to further expand the database. Practical implications -Results obtained greatly improve the existing methods for conceptual design, which usually pay no attention to the rear part of the aircraft. Besides, these new procedures are adapted to different categories of aircraft, allowing greater optimization of the designs. Originality/value -The novel contribution of this work is focused on the development of a new high-fidelity database and includes many more aircraft than any other work previously released. Also, new correlations, linear and non-linear, additional parameters not considered in previous studies, and differentiated by category of aircraft studies are provided.

The future of aviation depends on reducing the environmental impact of the aircraft. Unconventional configurations can be the change the industry needs to achieve that goal. Therefore, the development of a tool that allows analyzing these configurations will contribute to their being considered more easily in future designs. This design procedure is based on an aerodynamic model and a weight methodology validated for unconventional tail designs. The load cases selected to size the structure were extracted from the certification regulations in force. In order to validate the methodology, the V-tail configuration was selected as a case study. The fuel savings reached with this tail configurations are around 0.7%, and the reduction in NOx emissions are even greater. Thus, the methodology has been validated and it can be easily adapted to other unconventional tail configurations.

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