Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Study of Gas Turbine Application.
Abstract
A survey of commercially-available gas turbine, spark and compression ignition engines was conducted to evaluate their current and future relative suitability for the DoD's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) short and close range program. The effects on performance associated with reducing gas turbine engine size from full scale to UAV dimensions were examined. A small turbo-jet engine (produced in France for remotely piloted vehicles) was procured in order to evaluate what levels of performance, power and endurance potential are currently achieved in commercially-available small engines. An engine test rig was designed and built to conduct performance tests. The engine was installed, instrumented and operated successfully through a series of five to eight minute tests. Selected measurements form the test stand were entered into an engine performance code in order to establish what component efficiencies and cycle parameters were required for the code to output the measured values of specific thrust and specific fuel consumption. With realistic component efficiencies thus determined, they could be used to compare gas turbine engine performance with that of other small-scale propulsion systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA306678
Entities
People
- David P. Lobik
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School