Air Force Institute of Technology; Kaszynski, Alexander A.
Synopsis "X-Hale"
In conjunction with the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the University of Michigan has designed and is currently building a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) experimental high altitude long endurance (X-HALE) aircraft to collect non-linear aeroelastic data to validate HALE aircraft design codes developed by academia, industry, and the federal government. While X-HALE is representative of HALE aircraft, the manufacturing and evaluation techniques are applicable to larger full size HALE aircraft such as the concepts being developed under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Vulture program. This paper documents the development of the X-HALE model to date including a history of the programmatic decisions, basic model configuration, geometric considerations, sensor and system architecture, and manufacturing challenges. Lessons learned from the prototyping include the evolutionary growth of X-HALE's joiner blocks and the manufacturing process of the composite wings. Furthermore, late in the design process, a series of aeroelastic simulations using the Nonlinear Aeroelastic Simulation Toolbox (NAST) developed at the University of Michigan demonstrated the need for a rotating vertical/horizontal stabilizer to aid in the recovery of the vehicle from unstable nonlinear coupled lateral dynamic "dutch roll like" motion. The documentation and development of X-HALE is critical to the programmatic goal of providing a complete nonlinear aeroelastic data set for the validation of nonlinear aeroelastic analytical tools for government, industry and academia.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
