ORIGINAL: perttime
I recall a site for full-size home-built aircraft (Rans?) mentioning that whatever all the engineers say, the primary thing that makes an aircraft fly is money
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This machine cost ZILCH (except the cost of an old secondhand motor and an old RC) the rest was from scrap. and it FLIES! - of course it's only a lowly model, but the same principle applies to models, - ARF's etc. as opposed to designing and building your own exciting machines!
The guy who made the above statement probably sat in his office, threw money at projects and let the engineers do all the hard work and worrying, and if it was successful he took all the glory - cos he was the leader of the team and he paid the money!