Long-distance roads: a new type of drone will be able to conduct reconnaissance for hundreds of kilometers

Russian specialists have developed and patented a drone that can fly both as an airplane and as a helicopter without changing its geometry. The transition between the modes is provided by a program that controls the change in engine thrust. The device can explore large areas and, if necessary, hover over the target. This is in demand in the search and rescue of people, monitoring of extended facilities (power lines, pipelines, etc.) and exploration. According to experts, when developing such devices, it is important that the controls and structures, such as propellers and wings, responsible for vertical and horizontal flight modes, do not interfere with each other.

How to combine airplane and helicopter flight modes

The new generation unmanned aerial vehicle was created by engineers of Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev — KAI. It is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft with software-controlled thrust distribution. Such a device can quickly switch from hover mode to horizontal flight and back. A patent has been obtained for the development.

Photo: KNRTU-KAI press service

The drone is shaped like the letter "x", at the ends of which there are propeller groups, the developers explained. This scheme allows, without changing the design and arrangement of the engines, to take off vertically like a helicopter and switch to horizontal flight like an airplane.

Thanks to such properties, the device can, for example, work as a long-range scout, which is able to quickly move tens of kilometers, and after seeing something interesting, hover, watching a specific point or object.

— The difference between the development and a conventional copter is the flight range. When switching to airplane mode, the wing begins to create lift. This reduces power consumption and increases flight range. As a result, the drone can fly much further with similar power plants and batteries," Nikita Semin, a leading engineer at KNRTU—KAI, told Izvestia.

According to him, similar developments exist in the world, but in most cases — in the form of test models. They are not widely used due to the difficulty of switching the control mode between flight modes.

Photo: KNRTU-KAI press service

In the proposed design, the problem was solved by gradually redistributing thrust between the engines. As the vehicle accelerates, it begins to rely on the lifting force of the wing, and the engines gradually reduce their load.

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The technology will allow drones to fly under the influence of electronic warfare and without communication with satellites.

The program that controls this process is recorded in the flight controller, an on—board computer that gives commands to the power plants. The algorithm is based on data from inertial sensors and satellite navigation, and the operator switches between modes by moving a toggle switch on the control device.

"The technical result of the invention is to reduce the weight and structural complexity of the device, ensure a smooth and stable transition between flight modes, reduce energy consumption by turning off the lifting engines in cruising mode and increase reliability due to the absence of mechanical drives," explained Nikita Semin.

According to the developer, the cruising speed of the drone is about 150 km/h, and the maximum is 200 km/h. The wingspan is one meter. With such dimensions, taking into account the piece production, the cost of one device is about 100-150 thousand rubles. With mass production, the price will be lower. In the near future, engineers intend to start developing two- and four-meter versions.

How to explore vast territories from a drone

— The X-shaped scheme is interesting as a compact hybrid aircraft architecture. The complexity of its implementation is associated with ensuring high aerodynamic qualities, stability and controllability, when propellers and bearing surfaces (wing) mutually affect each other. At the same time, the algorithm must correctly calculate the thrust for each engine," Anton Lyapin, project manager of the Aeromobility Directorate at the Moscow Aviation Institute, told Izvestia.

Engineers at MAI are conducting similar developments, he noted. Their advantages are compactness, simple mechanics (without rotary propeller groups), good handling and high maneuverability. At the same time, in terms of aerodynamic efficiency, the X-shaped wing may be inferior to the classical aircraft design.

According to Artem Bogatyrev, a market expert at the Aeronet National Technical Initiative, such devices are in demand where, for example, you need to quickly inspect an extended route — a coastline, a pipeline route, a forest area — and after detecting an object of attention, conduct detailed surveillance without haste.

Hence the wide range of potential tasks. This includes search and rescue operations on the water and in the mountains, monitoring forest fires, overflying power lines, pipelines and railways, oil spill detection, as well as mapping hard-to-reach areas and logistics in remote areas.

In the proposed scheme, the abandonment of rotary units and complex mechanical drives removes the most vulnerable parts and brings the reliability of the device closer to a conventional multicopter, the specialist noted.

— In the military sphere, the advantage of the design is complete independence from runways or launch equipment. Such devices are capable of operating from any unequipped site. Moreover, unlike classic multicopters, they are less vulnerable to weapons due to the high speed of cruising flight. The faster the drone, the more difficult it is to intercept or shoot it down," military expert Yuri Lyamin told Izvestia.

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Some of the developments were finalized directly by the troops, taking into account the experience of using them on the line of combat contact.

According to him, tactical flexibility is complemented by the ability to switch to hover mode over a target at any time to conduct reconnaissance or adjust fire. However, it is possible to evaluate the characteristics of the devices only based on the results of full-fledged flight tests, the expert added.

Photo: KNRTU-KAI press service

Dmitry Kuzyakin, Chief Designer of the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, noted that the problem of development lies in a technical contradiction. An attempt to combine copter stabilization and an airplane wing at the same time leads to an aerodynamic conflict when the controls begin to "compete" for holding the device and interfere with each other.

"Engineers have abandoned this approach in favor of a clear separation of flight phases, where the systems operate in turn — either as multicopters on takeoff and landing, or as aircraft with their copter engines turned off," the specialist said.

According to him, this is the right approach, since attempts to make the two systems work in parallel lead to the fact that drones remain in the news without getting to the front.