I was thinking of designing an airliner, drawing plans for it I meant. I though have some questions. How do I go about the size? I will use the HyperFlow Electric Ducted Fan, which is 5.6 cm in diameter. What length and width must the fuselage be? And the wings? Does anyone have pictures or web-sites you know where I can find out this information?

Ok you have decided on an engine, so now look at what type of thrust it produces. Now you need to decide how many engines you want to use, or how much power you will have. Now you can rough out an idea of the max weight your airframe can be...
That will give you and idea of max size and type of construction methods to use...

The length, width, wings are all going to be limited on the amount of power you have to move it and the drag your airframe will produce, and the weight of the structure will give you an idea of how to size it.

The diameter of the Ducted Fan does not tell you much, what you need to know is how much thrust it will produce. How much weight are you going to need for the batt'. and esc's the weight of these will be part of the airframe weight you will have to consider in your design.

Look at
http://www.airfieldmodels.com
He has an series on how to design an aircraft, it may help you out.

One other sugestion, get a copy of Andy Lennons' book on model aircraft design, and read it before you start, you can find it a most hobby stores or an online book seller.

Take a look at Keith Sparks' beautiful Douglas MD-80 which was a construction article in the November 2006 issue of Flying Models. Wingspan is 84", weight 6lb.4oz. powered by two Mega 16/15/5 motors driving small pusher props which are hardly visible.

For an airliner'ish sort of flying mode you want to have roughly a .5 or .6 thrust to weight ratio. This will allow for decent but not jet fighter like climbs. SO if you know how much thrust the fan unit provides then you'll know how much total thrust you have and how much you should plan on the plane weighing. From there you can try to guess how large you can make it and still keep to that weight. The larger and more wing area the better. Let the fuselage size fall where the scale factor demands. There's nothing that says fat fuselages won't fly decently. Just make sure it's mostly air inside to keep the weight down to your target.

Thank you everyone. One more thing to ask, if you don't mind. I am not planning on making a scale plane, although it is a jet. I am making a two-engine, wing-mounted-engine deisgn for my plane. My only struggle is that I can never make the nose look beautiful. Do you have any pictures of the side-view of commercial plane nose (not necessarily a model airplane nose).

Thank you sincerely,

Demosthenes.[>:]

brace yourself before you click on this link: www.airliners.net You will find what you want and then some. Go to the photos page, and then do a commercial aircraft keyword search for "nose" and you will be happy.

WARNING: This site is very addictive and may provoke roommates into making fun of your addiction.

..... or so you've heard?