Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to submit original and unpublished research work or recommend papers, to be published in a Special Issue of Drones devoted to drone propulsion systems. Use of unmanned aerial vehicles/systems or drones has been expanding dramatically in the last few decades. Drone applications include: Search and rescue operations; traffic monitoring; archeological surveying; environmental studies and meteorology; various security-related tasks, like surveillance, crowd monitoring and control; firefighting; healthcare, including medical supplies delivery; commercial delivery; farming; pipeline and oil rig inspections; extensive military usage; and many other applications. The exponential development of drones is anticipated to continue in the forthcoming decade, with a growth of worldwide spending on UAVs from approximately four billion USD in 2015 toward 14 billion USD in 2024.

Propulsion system is a heart of the drone. It defines drone survivability, endurance and other parameters crucial for UAV. Between the main requirements to UAV propulsion systems, one can mention reliability because propulsion system failure inevitably leads to UAV loss; low fuel consumption, which allows minimizing the drone weight at take-off and climbing or increasing the flight endurance; low weight and compact design of the system that enable more payload; and low noise level to avoid a possibility of on-land undesired alert. The propulsion system should allow also a convenient drone climbing to high flight altitudes without power loss. A necessity to meet these requirements, as well as the special needs of specific applications, result in numerous technological and scientific challenges. This imposes a need for intensive research on UAV propulsion, which is constantly progressing and expanding.

This Special Issue of Drones seeks high-quality research papers on all aspects of UAV propulsion. Topics of primary interest include, but are not limited to:

• Methods of energy conversion for UAV propulsion,
• Two- and four-stroke IC engines,
• Rotary engines,
• Alternative propulsion methods and schemes,
• Electric and hybrid propulsion,
• Engine-platform/propeller matching,
• Conventional and alternative fuels for UAV engines,
• Future development trends, etc.

Original research, review and case study articles can be submitted.

Dr. Leonid Tartakovsky
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.