Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) increasingly demand higher flight speeds, longer endurance, improved payload capacity, and greater operational flexibility across a wide range of applications. While battery-electric propulsion systems dominate small UAV platforms, their limited energy density significantly constrains range and mission duration. Consequently, turbine-based propulsion systems, including micro turbojets, turboprops, turboshafts, and hybrid-electric gas turbine architectures, are attracting growing attention as alternatives for advanced UAV operations. Unlike previous reviews that primarily focus on propulsion technologies or individual subsystem performance, this review provides an integrated assessment of the multidisciplinary challenges associated with turbine-powered UAVs, encompassing thermal, structural, aerodynamic, acoustic, operational, and stealth considerations within a unified framework. The presented synthesis identifies current knowledge gaps and emerging research directions, providing a comprehensive reference for the design and development of next-generation turbine-powered unmanned aerial platforms.
The increasing demand for long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, infrastructure inspection, surveillance, and disaster response has accelerated research into renewable-energy-powered flight systems. Conventional battery-powered UAVs are constrained by the limi...
I. C., Victor Oluikpe, Emmanuel Nnali-Uroh et al.· International journal of res...· 0 citations
: As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) continue to expand from consumer applications to logistics, emergency rescue, inspection and surveying, agricultural plant protection, long-endurance reconnaissance, and high-altitude mission platforms, their mission scenarios are becoming increasingly specialized, complex, and reli...
Lu Han, Jia-Jie Lei, Tai-Lei Zhang et al.· Energy Engineering· 0 citations
Micro unmanned aerial vehicles extend aerial sensing into spaces that are too small, dangerous or improvised for conventional aircraft. Their most vulnerable phase, however, is often the initial seconds of flight. Limited wing area, low-Reynolds-number aerodynamics and strict mass budgets make it difficult to combine e...
Yu-Xin Liu· Applied and Computational En...· 0 citations
Wind turbine blade inspections are critical for ensuring structural integrity and minimizing operational downtime. However, existing methods, such as single Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) inspections, are limited by trade-offs among coverage, resolution, operational constraints, and often require turbine shutdown. This...
Mario Leopold, Klaus Schoeffmann, F. Tashtarian· IEEE Access· 0 citations
Fixed-wing surveillance aircraft built around electric or small internal-combustion propulsion offer good endurance but are speed-limited, which restricts their ability to reposition rapidly over long standoff distances or evade emerging threats. This paper presents the design, integration methodology, and performance...
Omaje Vincent Chukwubuike, S. Saiki, Ndukuba Chidinma Oluebube et al.· Global Journal of Engineerin...· 0 citations
Metal additive manufacturing (MAM) is revolutionizing the design and production of high-performance components across the aerospace sector. This narrative review examines recent research on gas turbine propulsion systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with a particular focus on the transformative role of metal ad...
Alberto Boretti· Frontiers in Materials· 1 citation
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