АНАЛІЗ ОСОБЛИВОСТЕЙ ПРОЕКТУВАННЯ БЕЗПІЛОТНОГО ТРАНСПОРТНОГО ЛІТАКА ЩОДО ПАЛИВНОЇ ЕФЕКТИВНОСТІ

The unmanned aircraft systems application is in the initial stage, which is characterized by a significant level of unmanned aircraft development and its elements, and by the lack of the basis of unmanned aircraft application in real technological processes. Resolution of this contradiction requires the solution of diverse problems of conceptual, technical, technological, methodological, organizational and legal – normative character.In general, today the unmanned aircraft systems application in the civil field is practically limited by particular cases of local applications in favor of the solution of current production or economic problems, mainly by the experimental procedure. Therefore, the market growth of the unmanned aircraft systems is expected providing the capability of a number of technical and administrative barriers that restrict the use of unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace. It should also be noted the increasing prevalence of unmanned systems in general transport.This study was motivated by the globally increasing interest in unmanned cargo drones. It was focused particularly on cargo drones based on existing conventional general aviation airplanes and it should be regarded as a preliminary step towards the complex assessment of unmanned cargo aircraft transport systems. The aim was to estimate the fuel efficiency of such drones and to outline the optimums of some of their key design characteristics. A sample of 26 very light and light aircraft, and motorgliders was examined. The data was taken from open sources. The results outline that for best fuel economy the cargo drone should be a composite structure, piston engine airplane with wing aspect ratio of 10 to 12. Fuel efficiency estimation at distances of 500 to 2500 km shows that such cargo drones would be competitive with large piloted commercial cargo airplanes as well as with the road transport.