Sizing and performance estimation of the payload lifting with a circling single fixed-wing tethered aircraft

Abstract

Abstract: Interest in transporting payload by air has grown significantly since the 1950s with the necessity of lifting heavy infrastructures such as power lines or reaching remote locations for mining exploitation. Nowadays, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft fulfil some of these missions. Despite great improvements over the last two decades with the democratization of tiltrotor aircraft, these advances focus on improving the high-speed capabilities, not their hover efficiencies. Moreover, no rotorcraft can reach 60,000 ft to observe a suspicious balloon due to their limited ceiling, while a light fixed-wing aircraft can and even loiter around.Résumé de la communication présentée lors du congrès international tenu conjointement par Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) et Computational Fluid Dynamics Society of Canada (CFD Canada), à l’Université de Sherbrooke (Québec), du 28 au 31 mai 2023