Foldable wing designs are becoming increasingly popular due to their advantages in the rapid deployment and compact packaging of fixed-wing UAVs, particularly when compared to horizontal take-off and VTOL counterparts. However, selecting an appropriate wing design requires the careful consideration of aerodynamic performance and volume storage constraints. As a result, a trade-off between performance and practicality must be addressed during the conceptual design phase. The primary objective of this study is to identify the optimal wing configuration for a tube-launched foldable wing design. To achieve this, the analysis combine an in-house design tool developed in Excel and XFLR5 v7.01 software.

This paper presents the end-to-end multidisciplinary development and flight-test assessment of a Class I fixed-wing mini unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The development process progresses from mission and system-level requirements through conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design, followed by prototype fabrication and experimental flight testing. Conceptual design establishes aircraft mass, wing and power loading, aerodynamic configuration, wing geometry, airfoil selection, mass distribution, and initial stability characteristics. The preliminary and detailed stages progressively increase analysis fidelity through assessments of aerodynamics, structures, aeroelasticity, propulsion, stability and control, performance, and thermal management. High-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is employed for aerodynamic char-acterization and load prediction, while Finite-Element (FE) and aeroelastic models are used to assess strength, stiffness, static and dynamic aeroelastic behavior. The aircraft configuration incorporates a V-tail, electric pusher propulsion, composite structural components, integrated control surfaces, wingtip devices, and dedicated cooling arrangements. A representative 3D-printed flight-test article retaining the principal aerodynamic architecture was subsequently evaluated in climb, straight-and-level flight, sustained turns, and low-speed operation. The vehicle exhibited stable and predictable handling throughout the tested envelope. Flight-derived aerodynamic characteristics showed close agreement with the detailed-design CFD database, with drag-coefficient deviations remaining below approximately 3% in straight-and-level flight and within approximately 1.5% during climb. Larger discrepancies, reaching approximately 16%, were observed during sustained turns, highlighting the increased uncertainty associated with maneuvering flight and with drag values inferred using the propulsion model. Overall, the study demonstrates a traceable progressive-fidelity methodology for advancing a mini-UAV from requirements and conceptual sizing to multidisciplinary verification and prototype-level flight assessment.