Generic Miniature Airplane for Research and Development

Designs of micro aerial vehicles can now be compared more systematically.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has promulgated the geometrical design of a miniature airplane denoted the Generic Micro Aerial Vehicle (GENMAV). This design is intended to serve as a baseline for analyses of geometrical designs of other micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). As such, the GENMAV design is meant to be distributed openly among organizations engaged in research and development pertaining to MAVs. The need for the GENMAV or a similar standard of comparison has become more acute in recent years because of the increasing interest in the use of MAVs [a subset of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs)] for diverse purposes, especially in military, law-enforcement, and rescue activities.