Fig. 4: Banking performance for three different wing and tail configurations.
From: Sharp turning maneuvers with avian-inspired wing and tail morphing
a–c Cubic interpolation of the lift and pitch coefficient (see Supplementary Fig. S4 for the data points and error bars) with a tucked wing and tail, b tucked wing, extended tail, c extended wing and tail, while deflecting the tail −15° upward. d Turn radius as a function of maximum lift coefficient obtained with the steady-bank turn model (Eq. (16)). nlf is the load factor (lift divided by aircraft weight). We have also added the mean turn radius (dots) and standard deviation (error bars) for tucked wing and tail (black), tucked wing and extended tail (gray), and extended wing and tail (light gray) from our outdoor flight tests for comparison (n = 5). e Turn trajectories and drone attitude (see Supplementary Fig. S5 for mean bank angles and air speed) of the three different wing and tail configurations during outdoor flight tests. The yellow dashed lines represents one representative trial run, the solid yellow lines are their projections on the xy-plane, and the average radii are the mean radius from 5 flown turns (n = 5). For sake of clarity, the drone is depicted 2x larger than its real size.
