GRCAS Modeling of Aircraft Interactions with Drones During Their Jettison and Launch

This paper presents an overview and demonstrates the Rotorcraft Comprehensive Analysis System′s (RCAS′) capabilities for modeling composite aircraft and their in-flight interactions. Composite aircraft history is briefly covered with examples of the challenges, technological evolution, and their modern applications. Two real-world multi-aircraft example cases are demonstrated, a concept quad-rotor vehicle released by a parachute laden lander and a rotorcraft launched drone. The rotorcraft launched drone model is representative of a tube-launched drone with unfolding wing and tail surfaces. A drone launch maneuver is simulated, including releasing the drone, dynamically unfolding the control surfaces, and controlling the drone through the launching rotorcraft's main rotor wake. The quad-copter vehicle with parachute and lander is modeled to be representative of a parachute assisted deployment and is representative of deployment concepts being evaluated for planetary exploration. In this example, the folded quad-copter entry velocity is reduced using a parachute, once the vehicle is sufficiently slowed the quad-rotor unfolds, spins up its own rotors, and is released from the parachute.