HCUAV

Hellenic Civil Unmanned Air Vehicle
Role	Surveillance UAV
National origin	Greece
First flight	2016
Status	Under Development
Number built	1 RX-1 prototype
Program cost	€2 million
Developed from	LFMT, LRA, CSL, Spacesonic, IDE, MLS

HCUAV is a research project, whose aim was to design and build a Medium-Altitude-Long-Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MALE UAV) in order to carry out civil operations in Greece.^[1] Its development started in 2013 and the consortium consortium consists of 6 partners, 3 University Research Groups (LFMT, CSL, LRA) and 3 SMEs (MLS Multimedia, Spacesonic Ltd, Intracom Defense Electronics) and is coordinated by the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics & Turbomachinery (LFMT) of the Dept. of Mech. Eng. of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). The chief Engineer of the project is prof. K. Yakinthos (AUTH).

Mission

The main project goal is the design and construction of a low-cost, high-performance civil UAV, appropriately equipped, for long day and night surveillance/patrol operations, such as sea monitoring, forest fires etc.^[1][2]

RX-1 prototype

Starting from scratch, the HCUAV prototype (RX-1) made its first and successful flight, 36 months after the initiation of the project.

The maiden flight took place in 2016, and lasted approximately 15 minutes.

Specifications

Data from^[2]

General characteristics

• Wingspan: 6.4 m
• Length: 4.035 m
• Max. takeoff weight: 185 kg
• Payload weight: 35 kg
• Fuel capacity: 55 kg

Performance

• Endurance: >10 h
• Range: >150 km
• Cruising speed: 160 km/h
• Loiter speed: 140 km/h
• Maximum speed: 190 km/h
• Stall speed: 70 km/h
• Operational altitude: 2 km

References

1. "Home". www.hcuav.gr. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
2. Panagiotou, P.; Kaparos, P.; Salpingidou, C.; Yakinthos, K. (2016-03-01). "Aerodynamic design of a MALE UAV". Aerospace Science and Technology. 50: 127–138. doi:10.1016/j.ast.2015.12.033.

http://www.hcuav.gr/index.php/en/ http://www.hcuav.gr/attachments/article/73/RLN_1105_043_CMYK.pdf