True, though the basic math calcs for designing/building from scratch aren't all that tough. Ha - many years ago one of the magazines had an airplane design contest, so I decided to design an .049 R/C trainer that would actually fly well, unlike the heavy foam .049 airplanes of the time. This was before all the micro/mini servos and other lightweight gear we have now. I was quite proud of my design, and it flight tested very well, even at a density altitude of 8000 feet!
When the design results came out in the mag, I was shocked! Virtually every entry except mine was a scale model; NOT an original design. I thought "Hey, that's not designing anything!! That is just scaling an EXISTING design!" Oh well....
AV8TOR