Combined Airframe and Power system for Extended Range (CAPER)

Aurora Flight Sciences and Protonex Technology Corporation propose a research effort into a Combined Airframe and Power system for Extended Range (or"CAPER") power system for air-launched Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS). The CAPER system is unique in that a fuel cell system and a SUAS will be designed together as a system, allowing design optimization to occur across the entire system. This is in contrast to past efforts, which have shoehorned existing fuel cell systems into existing SUAS designs, result in sub-optimal performance, albeit often better than battery-based performance. Designing an integrated power system for SUAS will result in mass savings which can be directly translated into higher fuel fraction and therefore greater range/endurance. Being able to optimize the design at the system level will also allow air-launched SUAS to meet difficult mission requirements while meeting constraints on packed volume and required power for flight.