Towards perpetual flight of a gliding unmanned aerial vehicle in the jet stream

In this paper, we investigate the potential of a self-powered gliding aircraft to remain aloft indefinitely. We focus specifically on operations in the jet stream where persistent wind gradients can be used to enable unpowered flight. The advantage of such a paradigm is that power requirements are reduced to those needed for aircraft navigation, control, and communication systems. To investigate the feasibility of such an approach, we examine both aircraft design requirements for perpetual flight, as well as trajectory strategies for solar power generation. Both the aircraft design and power generation problems are cast as non-linear optimization problems where the aircraft equations of motion and periodicity serve as constraints to ensure that sustainable flight trajectories are maintained. Simulation results indicate a suitable aircraft design capable of unpowered flight in the jet stream and capable of generating sufficient electrical power can be achieved.

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