Development of a Electric Fixed Wing VTOL UAV for Challenging Sensor Deployments

This paper describes the design, development and preliminary flight tests of an all electrical vertical take off and landing UAV with the aim of maximising performance from the aircraft in order to meet challenging scientific sensor deployment needs. A description of the key stages of development is provided, including configuration selection, preliminary design and sizing, structural design, manufacture, flight tests and flight data analysis. Empirical methods used to estimate the performance during the design process are compared to the flight test results.