Portable Recovery System for an Unmanned Aircraft with a Straight Wing and a Tractor Propeller

Abstract

The recovery system development effort for an unmanned aircraft (UA) has been documented and examined. The development effort existed to satisfy a customer's need to recover an 80 lb aircraft on unimproved terrain. The recovery system had to be able to be transported in a small portion of the bed of a pickup truck, set up in less than 15 minutes, and operated by highly tasked individuals. The customer was willing to accept impacts to aircraft performance, but impacts were to be minimized to the greatest extent possible. Multiple iterations of designs were developed and tested, starting from a previously established arresting wire recovery system design, evolving through many barrier net configurations. Testing was conducted by suspending an analogue aircraft from a truck-mounted aircraft recovery simulator mechanism, pushing an aircraft through the recovery system, launching an unpowered aircraft into the recovery system, and flying a fully functional aircraft into the recovery system during flight testing. The current design is a barrier system that secures the airframe and decelerates it via two disk brake dissipaters. All of the on-runway recoveries of the mature designs resulted in successful recoveries of the aircraft. Some of the off-runway recoveries resulted in damage to the aircraft. Design changes were implemented to avoid future malfunctions. Additional improvements are proposed for consideration.