Aerodynamic Efficiency of Longitudinally Unstable Tailless Aircraft

Aerodynamic Efficiency of Longitudinally Unstable Tailless Aircraft

Stefan RIETHAUSEN, David LUNDSTRÖM, Petter KRUS

Abstract. A tailless unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to measure the efficiency difference of stable and augmented unstable flight was developed, built and flown. An overview of the UAV and its systems is given along with the test flight procedure. The measurements are then compared between stable and augmented unstable configuration to draw conclusions.

Keywords
Tailless Aircraft, Stability Augmentation, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Aerodynamic Efficiency, Flight Testing

Published online 7/20/2026, 6 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Stefan RIETHAUSEN, David LUNDSTRÖM, Petter KRUS, Aerodynamic Efficiency of Longitudinally Unstable Tailless Aircraft, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 475-480, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-86

The article was published as article 86 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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