Design and Flight Control of Low-Speed Near-Space Unmanned Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Near-space is a new type of strategic space, offering significant advantages for diverse applications such as surveillance, communication, and scientific research. As an ideal platform for exploring and exploiting this space, technologies like stratospheric airships, high-altitude solar drones, and high-altitude balloons are rapidly advancing. With the maturation of high-altitude platform technology, the demand for practicality is increasing, and related industries are gradually emerging with huge market space. High-altitude platforms can be widely used in communication coverage, remote sensing applications, environmental monitoring, aviation support and other fields. A crucial research challenge lies in designing unmanned flying platforms that can maintain accurate and stable flight within the harsh and unpredictable near-space environment. While solar panels, advanced battery systems and onboard intelligent energy management ensure sustainable operation of HAPS, balancing the energy demands of flight and communications remains a significant challenge.

This Special Issue aims to publish cutting-edge research results on the design and flight control of near-space low-speed aircraft, a rapidly evolving and highly significant area within the broader field of drone technology. It will contribute to the development of innovative UAV technologies and their successful application within the emerging near-space domain.

We welcome submissions that provide the community with the latest progress on near-space low-speed aircraft, including but not limited to the following:

1. Review of research progress of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;
2. Overall design technology of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;
3. High-performance materials and structural design of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;
4. Energy system design and energy management of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;
5. Flight planning and flight control of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;
6. Collaborative control of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft clusters;
7. Prognostics and health management of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;
8. Thermal management of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;
9. Intelligent application of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft.

Prof. Dr. Ming Zhu
Dr. Xixiang Yang
Dr. Tian Chen
Guest Editors

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.

• near space
• high altitude platform station
• solar powered unmanned systems
• high altitude balloon
• overall design of aircraft
• flight control
• solar energy cycle system
• ultra-light construction
• near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft