A Micro Aircraft with Passive Variable-Sweep Wings

Traditional fixed-wing vehicles are equipped with multiple active aerodynamic surfaces for flight control. This inevitably necessitates several actuators, complicates the mechanical structure, and adversely impacts the flight efficiency, particularly for small aerial vehicles. As a lightweight and efficient solution, this work proposes to employ passive variable-sweep wings on a micro airplane to eliminate the need for active control surfaces while retaining effective pitch maneuverability. Depending on the thrust produced by the propellers, the wings passively sweep back and forth, relocating the center of pressure and affecting the pitch moment. The thrust-induced deformation substitutes the elevators for pitch control. Through aerodynamic modeling, the flight dynamics of the proposed vehicle is analyzed. The results show that the proposed design brings about amplified and accelerated pitch response. Lastly, a prototype was constructed to demonstrate and verify the enhanced aircraft’s pitch control ability.