Verifying the Effect of Wingtip Propellers on Drag Through In-Flight Measurements

This work presents the effect of wingtip-mounted propellers on the aircraft drag polar, identified from in-flight measurements. In previous wind-tunnel experiments, significant reductions in drag and an increase in propulsive efficiency through interaction between induced flow by the wingtip-mounted propellers and the flowfield of the wing itself have been claimed. So far, however, these effects have never been verified in actual flight. That gap is closed here by presenting the results of in-flight measurements. A 33.3% scaled version of the manned, electric e-Genius aircraft has been fitted with a wingtip propulsion system and an elaborate measurement system, which allows quantifying the aforementioned effects. The drag polar is deduced through weighted least-squares parameter estimation for different settings and configurations of the wingtip propellers. The findings are compared to results from previous wind-tunnel experiments. The paper further discusses secondary effects that were observed during the flight tests and their influence on the general potential of wingtip propulsion.