Journal of Computer and Communications, 2016, 4, 92-97

http://www.scirp.org/journal/jcc
ISSN Online: 2327-5227
ISSN Print: 2327-5219

Technical Analysis of VTOL UAV

Seunghee Yu, Jinyeong Heo, Sekyung Jeong, Yongjin Kwon*

Department of Industrial Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea

How to cite this paper: Yu, S., Heo, J., Abstract

Jeong, S. and Kwon, Y. (2016) Technical
Analysis of VTOL UAV. Journal of Com- Overall, this paper explains the related information about VTOL and trend of this
puter and Communications, 4, 92-97. technology worldwide. Also, it comes up with the distinction among VTOL and hel-
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jcc.2016.415008 icopter and fixed wing aircraft. This paper concentrates on domestic and interna-
tional drones that utilize VTOL technology. Also, this paper gives the explanation
Received: August 25, 2016
Accepted: November 25, 2016 about VTOL’s performance and object. Furthermore, this paper predicts the future
Published: November 28, 2016 of VTOL and which area this technology going to be used.

Keywords
VTOL, UAV, Tilt-Rotor, Multicopter, Military

1. Introduction
Currently, the demand for VTOL, which can manage vertical takeoff and landing is in-
creasing. VTOL is developed in the form of combining benefits of both multicopter and
fixed wing aircraft. Multicopter can do vertical takeoff and landing but its rotary wing
rotor can’t pass the velocity of sound However, aircraft can go faster but it needs air-
strip for strong lift. VTOL, which is possible to high speed vertical takeoff and landing
is developed by many countries for the purpose of the defense industry. But its devel-
opment focused on some countries like Korea, Japan, France, Swiss, China, etc. Because
of the limitation of latest technology and also its problem in industrial utilization.
VTOL can do various functions in various industries...VTOL can do High-resolution
photography and it can combine with smartphones. And it can control forest, on the
water, traffic situation and the site of the accident. Also it can escort ships by military
purposes. In this way, this study analyzes the level of technologies of VTOL and its
global trends [1] [2] [3].

2. Case Study
Most countries are promoting briskly UAV development from military tilt-rotor based

DOI: 10.4236/jcc.2016.415008 November 28, 2016

 S. Yu et al.

in small unmanned aircraft and this military conversion development is making active-
ly so some countries are already using UAV in the actual fight. While grasping the
VTOL development examples, we want to identify the fact that each country developed
technologies in any direction. In this article, let’s look at the VTOL developments of 7
countries such as South Korea, Japan, Israel, France, Switzerland, China, and the Unit-
ed States [4] [5] [6].

2.1. Kus-TR (TR-60) & TR-100

Kus-TR is a VTOL developed by Korean Air in South Korea. This UAV is one of the
world's first VTOL UAV that Korea developed by their own technologies. Korea Air is
the company of air transport business that established routes from Korea for passenger
and cargo traffic. It also has been in aerospace business which is studying aircraft de-
sign and production, civil and military aircraft maintenance and satellites etc. Korean
Air and KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) co-produce KUS-TR. They suc-
ceeded initial flight in 10 May 17, 2013 and they aim to the world’s first commercializa-
tion in 2010. Because it is made small and light compared to the TR-100, it seems to be
easy to move through the vehicle. TR-100 is a VTOL Smart UAV for civilian that was
developed as a way of tilt-rotor by KARI (Figure 1, Table 1 and Table 2).

Figure 1. KUS-TR & TR-100.

Table 1. KUS-TR performance & data.

Full length 3.5 m Overall width 5.2 m

Maximum weight 210 kg Weight on board 30 kg
Engine 55 horse power Maximum speed 250 km/h
Cruising speed 200 km/h Maximum altitude 4.5 km
Management radius 60 - 200 km Time in service 6 hrs
Manufacturer Korean Air Development nation South Korea

Table 2. TR-100 performance & data.

Full length 5m Overall width 7m

Maximum weight 1000 kg Weight on board 100 kg
Engine PWC-206(56HP) Maximum speed 500 km/h
Fuel level 300 kg Time in service 5 hrs
Management radius 200 km Price 30hundred million won
Manufacturer KARI Development nation South Korea

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2.2. Aerosense
Aerosense is a high speed VTOL UAV developed by Japan’s SONY. They developed
industrial system combining the UAV and the cloud technology and will soon launch a
product on a commercial UAV market. Aerosense is light and flying at a low rate com-
pared to other VTOL, but is expected to be used in conjunction with emerging services.
It provides several industrial services such as delivery, patrol, shooting and etc. and is
equipped with a high-quality shooting, Cloud uploading technology as a high- speed
VTOL UAV. It is also possible to provide aerial photography data analysis services in
the industry with combination of high-speed autonomous flight technolo- gies and
smartphone technology (Table 3).

2.3. Air-Mule
Air Mule is a UAV for Israel developed by Tactical Robotics Inc. Tactical Robotics is a
UAV manufacturer that developed UAV for military loading called AirMule and now is
in the VTOL development what is called Metro Skyways. Air Mule is a massive loading
UAV improved the limits that less loading weight for existing VTOL UAV. It has high-
er speed than other UAVs, so it is expected that high utilization. Also, this UAV is
possible to fly by remote control or autonomous flight system (Table 4).

2.4. Airbus DS Tanan300

Airbus DS Tanan300 is a VTOL that is being co-developed by DCNS Inc. of France
state-owned shipbuilders and AirbusDS Inc. Airbus Inc. is developing TANAN which
can employ aircrafts on the shipboard with cooperation with DCNS Inc. It seems to
practice the initial flight of TANAN300 in end of 2016 or early in 2017. Airbus DS
TANAN300 has extremely large operational radius around 300km because it operates
with ship at sea. France is supposed to product additional midrange frigate in the
4000-ton class that can employ TANAN UAV (Table 5).

Table 3. Aerosense performance & data.

Maximum weight 10 kg Weight on board 10 kg

Time in service 2 hrs Maximum speed 170 km/h

Manufacturer Sony Development nation Japan

Table 4. Air mule performance & data.

Full length 6.2 m Overall width 3.5 m

Maximum weight 1000 kg Weight on board 453 kg

Engine Ariel2 hybridturob shaft Maximum speed 414 km/h

Management radius 50 km Maximum altitude 5.5 km

Manufacturer Tactical Robotics Development nation Israel

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 S. Yu et al.

Table 5. Airbus DS tanan 300 performance & data.

Full length 4.3 m Overall width 5m

Maximum weight 350 kg Weight on board 80 kg

Engine Diesel engine Maximum speed 150 km/h

Management radius 200 km Maximum altitude 4000 m

Manufacturer Airbus Defense & Space Development nation France

2.5. Wingtra
Wingtra (Fixed Wing Drone) is being developed in Wingtra Co., Switzerland. Winqtra
is a vertical takeoff-landing VTOL which can load regardless of sensor range. Winqtra
Co. is a venture company which is divided by the autonomous system laboratory in the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. And it is planning to commercialize the
latest hybrid Winqtra unmanned planes since 2017.This unmanned plane is manufac-
tured to be able to look after forests. It is suitable to Swiss, which has many forests (Ta-
ble 6).

2.6. VD200
VD200 is a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft developed by CARDI Co, China.
CARDI set up a goal of aerospace industry sales to more than 500 billion yuan by 2017
and developing a reconnaissance UAV which is going to be used in future industry.
CARDI VD200 has optical and laser designator payload, and ground transportation
version is paired with command and control vehicle being transferred by transport ve-
hicle. This UAV, compared to other drone operations, radius of processing, weight,
speed is not very good, but not left behind and above average (Table 7).

2.7. X-Plane
X plane is next-generation unmanned vertical takeoff and landing, and it is under de-
velopment of Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). X-Plane pro-
testing airframe and its initial flight are expected to be done in 2018. X-plane has heavy
weight and its engine and speed are by far compared to than the other UAV. Accor-
dingly, it is most likely to be used in the army and play an important role without war
casualties in a situation. In the case of Commercial airplanes, Wings is fixed to the fu-
selage, whereas X-plane put rotary vane in wing so it can supplement its existing
shortcomings (Table 8).

3. Analysis
Case of the above use the method of tilt rotor, which technology changes the angle of
the rotor so that it can take off and land vertically. It is normally used in large airframe
like air carrier rather than small airframe like combat plane. Tilt rotor has 2 rotors so its
disk load is generally larger that helicopter, which has 1 main rotor. Also, if it is hover-
ing, rotor’s downwash clash with wings and reduce its thrust effectiveness. But two

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Table 6. Wingtra performance & data.

Weight on board 1.5 kg Maximum speed 100 km/h

Manufacturer Wingtra Development nation Switzerland

Table 7. VD200 performance & data.

Full length 1.8 m Overall width 4.6 m

Maximum weight 200 kg Weight on board 20 kg

Time in service 3 hrs Maximum speed 260 km/h

Management radius 150 km Maximum altitude -

Manufacturer CARDI Development nation China

Table 8. X-plane performance & data.

Full length 15.2 m Overall width 13.4 m

Maximum weight More than 5450 kg Engine 4000HP engine

Time in service - Maximum speed 741 km/h

Manufacturer DARPA & Aurora Flight Science Development nation USA

rotors that spins in the opposite direction with each other don’t need any tail rotor so
that much of engine power is saved.
If tilt-rotor perform only slow flight of the helicopter mode, it is somewhat lacking in
low-speed performance besides helicopter. But, it can fly at altitudes more than twice of
the helicopter and produce twice of the cruising speed. Therefore, it seems to be used a
lot when it should go to a higher area or move faster. In the case of TR-60, its maxi-
mum speed is 250km and it can increase up the altitude to a maximum 4km. In addi-
tion, it can fly up to 6 hours in the sky. So, it is expected to be able to play a role about
watching, searching, reconnaissance and etc. in large area. Also TR60 can be used in the
construction industries which deliver construction supplies without cranes.

4. Conclusion
VTOL is a different purpose depending on the weight, weight, operating radius, speed.
Most of them are made by the military, but it seems to be endless use cases are used in a
variety of markets. For example, the FE-Panther detects forest fires and illegal fishing,
even safety of such operations is to detect fish. It can also be reported to the state road,
highway reconnaissance, traffic conditions bring the real-time location information.
Aerosense is an autonomous flight and also provides analysis of the data taken from
public necessities of industry. In addition, the role seems to be used for purposes such
as transportation, forestry, transport of large-scale products. But until the commercia-
lization, you go through the process such reliability testing, system development on the
part of the test aircraft (prototype).When you see the United States’ Belsa that made
tilt-rotor aircraft, aircraft tilt-rotor is very difficult to develop a practical aircraft. But

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for a long time, so that made this aircraft is that it's well worth it. By downsizing the
size, it can precise and safe landing though a confined area landing and bad weather
and also can reduce operating costs. Above all there is no damage of human life, it can
perform a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance surveillance, armed
attacks, relay communications, and electronic warfare is the biggest advantage. Europe
started to develop tilt-rotor to prevent exclusivity of VTOL market in the United States.
China announced that it has begun developing a large aircraft tilt-rotor than the V22.
South Korea was also promoting the development of tilt-rotor UAV to national
projects. Also, Japan and Israel is known to have purchased a V22 to strengthen na-
tional defense. Now, globally helicopters having a low survival are now leaving, VTOL
expects to take up room in the future. Because VTOL has a lot of efficiency. Therefore,
this VTOL development of many countries around the world is expected to be under
acceleration. Not only VTOL can be used to the role of military but also leverage in
private for fire surveillance, reconnaissance mapping. In the domain of remote sensing,
it will replace estimated satellite significant portion. It seems to be used as a means to
effectively monitor the contamination problem for the global warming which has a
number of problems in the world.

Acknowledgements
Following are the results of a study on the “Leaders INdustry-university Cooperation
(LINC)” Project, supported by the Ministry of Education, South Korea.

References
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[2] Kim, J., Lee, K., Wang, H., An, J., Park, S., Lee, S., Kim, M. and Han, Y. (2013) Pre-Concept
Design Study of VTOL UAV. Sejon University.
[3] Hu, T. and Desai, J.P. (2004) Soft-Tissue Material Properties under Large Deformation:
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[4] Yu, M.H. (2016) Drone of 500km/hrs. Joonangiilbo.
[5] Sheldon (2016) KARI Tiltrotor UAV. http://news.joins.com/article/19495229
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