Design of the General Systems for the SAGITTA Demonstrator UAV

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) with a Maximum takeoff weight of up to 150 Kg are enjoying increasing popularity, especially as scaled-down demonstrator aircraft for future civil and military applications. This paper gives an overview about the development of the general systems for the SAGITTA demonstrator aircraft. General systems is an Airbus Defence and Space term and covers all flight safety critical Systems except the engine and flight control computers. The SAGITTA demonstrator aircraft is a scaled-down UAV for the purpose of demonstrating capabilities of future Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV). On system level, the realization of the electrical power supply system, the electromechanical actuation system, the fuel system and the design of a retractable landing gear for the demonstrator aircraft is described. Since there is still no significant market for systems of a relevant size for aircraft of the dimension of SAGITTA, most of the components are essentially new developments. This paper gives an overview about the main design considerations of these systems.