CRAZYRYAN

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If i were to design a total new aircraft for radio control how would it be done without desinging skills? were would i obain the formulas to calculate the area of the aircraft the wieght it would be the wingspan it should have the type of airfoil design it will need and if the plane would be in equilibium unaccelerated flight? i really dont know where to begin i never passed algebra just did pre-algebra and wonder if my skills are insufficient to begin with.

Flak

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CrazyRyan,
Wilbur and Orville were bicycle manufacturers. However, they succeeded in defeating gravity with a powered aircraft. I have designed and built six of my own R/C planes and they all flew great. One day while my oldest son was going to college he and several of his aerospace engineer buds were over for a visit. They asked my son where I had received my aerospace degree from. He laughed and replied, "Heck, Dad doesn't have a degree, he just knows how to build a good airplane"! They were amazed. I'm sure a google or yahoo search will help you. I also believe there are some r/c aircraft design and building DVD's available. Good luck.

"Keep 'Em Flying!"
Flak

KidEpoxy

To totally design an airplane, I would start by re-inventing the wheel, then re-invent everythng else.... but we all know what a good wheel should have- Round with a CenterHole. There is no real reason to try to re-invent airfoils or WingWarp / Ailerons. You know they exist, and how they work: Look at the project you have and at similar aircraft (mainly models) to get a feel for how much of a characteristic you should use. You want a floater, check out the fat airfoils on trainers & slowpokes. A speedmonster- look at the fast planes & see what they chose. Get a idea of how much wing an engine of the size your planning can drag thru the air at the speeds you want by looking at existing models. Remember, we have gotten just about anything to fly in real life- From wings with no fuse to the F104Starfighter with its little joke wings.

To Wit:
You know you need an elevator on the tail. Should it be 1/2", 1".... 2" wide? Take a look at similar sized/type aircraft that fly well and see how much elevator they use. If they have no problem with a .75x20", you know to plan for about 15sq" in your design.

Of course, some things are just from the hip, and that is where a foam or posterboard mini-mock-up glider comes in. You can do a lot of GC, Tailfeather, & stability work with a lil model of your RC Model Plane design

CRAZYRYAN

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ok will do i probably start out with some graph paper so i can get the deminsions right i found this awesome little applet program that allows u to figure out what typeof airfoil u can experiment with moving air symbols it really interesting its your computerized wind tunnel.

BMatthews

Start by working through the links to other sites in the FAQ threads pinned to the top of the thread listings. There's some great sites that take you through a lot of the process for a basic model.

Designing the internal structure is another issue that is just as important as the overall proportions. If you make the insides heavy or too light so that it either has a high wing loading or has a structural failure in flight then all your number crunching and sketching is good for nuthin'. For structural help all I can suggest is to study plans for similar sized and styles of models and copy what they show. Here again there's links to lots of online plans available for downloading.

Beyond that come back and ask about specific parts. The topic of how to design from soup to nuts is just FAR too broad to answer in only one thread. Especially since you offer no parameters for what size or style of model you're trying to come up with.


That applet? It sounds like you may have found Foilsim. If so then yea, it's a great little tool that helps you understand how airfoils work and how the different aspects of their shape and angle of attack produces lift. Don't trust the stall model though. At our Reynolds numbers (ie: small size related scale effects) the stall typically occurs at around the 7 to 8 degree AoA point while Foilsim has a generic stall at around 10 degrees.

dicknadine

suggest that you start looking at and reading some the aircraft magizine, both full scale and model that are available. the basic proportion are shown. airfoil is of very little concern. a barn wing will fly, with enough power, plus a few crash's to show you the errors. us OLD TIMERS learned the above way and its stiil a good way-- without the computor. dick

WB2SXN

Hi - I designed my first scratch built using this book by Andy Lennon and it was a great flyer - it's worth the purchase price.

Marian

I hope this will help you:
http://www.sentex.net/~mec1995/hobby/pmdesign.htm

Don´t be afraid to experiment. If you follow the basic rules and the CG is aproximately in 27-33% of wing chord, you can be sure, it will fly.
It is also usefull to prepare statistic table from information about ARF´s and to establish relation beween airplane tipe, wing load, surfaces, engine size, airfoils, dihedral, wing incidence etc. Soon you will be able to designe your own models.

Jigley3

Ryan...

This site and the info referred to in post #8 are all you need... enjoy...
Bert


http://airfieldmodels.com/informatio...sign/index.htm