Model airplane design library
11-02-2007, 02:31 AM
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Model airplane design library
What are the most important books that you would include in your model airplane design library including those out of print?
11-03-2007, 12:19 AM
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RE: Model airplane design library
ORIGINAL: FlyerInOKC
I would make Faye Tilley's books on Scratch building and both volumes on Covering with iron on films manadtory. There are also several volumes out there on tips and control systems I would also add.
I would make Faye Tilley's books on Scratch building and both volumes on Covering with iron on films manadtory. There are also several volumes out there on tips and control systems I would also add.
11-03-2007, 12:21 AM
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RE: Model airplane design library
ORIGINAL: Chad Veich
Not book but videos, the Dave Platt "Scratch This" series as well as all of Dave's videos are must have, IMHO.
Not book but videos, the Dave Platt "Scratch This" series as well as all of Dave's videos are must have, IMHO.
11-03-2007, 03:07 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
Old magazines from back in the day when they had two or three construction projects are a valuable resource as well. Studying the plans is a great way to learn options for a lot of the structural details. There's no point in having a planform that is aerodynamically worthy if the internals structure isn't able to withstand the flight loads or is so heavy that it ends up being a dog.
11-03-2007, 06:41 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
ORIGINAL: BMatthews
Old magazines from back in the day when they had two or three construction projects are a valuable resource as well. Studying the plans is a great way to learn options for a lot of the structural details. There's no point in having a planform that is aerodynamically worthy if the internals structure isn't able to withstand the flight loads or is so heavy that it ends up being a dog.
Old magazines from back in the day when they had two or three construction projects are a valuable resource as well. Studying the plans is a great way to learn options for a lot of the structural details. There's no point in having a planform that is aerodynamically worthy if the internals structure isn't able to withstand the flight loads or is so heavy that it ends up being a dog.
11-03-2007, 07:10 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
Haunt some of the local model swap meets or used book stores that tend to have magazines. Buy any issues that are not "collector priced" from the 80's or earlier. Even into the early 90's they still used to have roughly two construction articles per issue but the earlier ones tended to be a little more generous with the construction articles. Early RCM's from the 60's and 70's were great. Model Builder was also a classic for this aspect.
If there's a local club that you can join I'm sure some of the members will have a library from that vintage. You could likely set up some sort of a borrowing scheme with one or two of them.
It's a shame that sport fliers these days are all about "new" designs. As you say a lot of the old RCM plans are just as flyable today as before. What they do have that puts off far too many would be builders is too many pieces. But it's this number of parts that provides the look of the model. Ugly Stiks may fly just wonderfully but they are hardly a thing of beauty!
/me reaches for flak jacket and kevlar helmet
Another aspect of this is to look into how forces and stresses are analyzed in a cantilevered I beam. When you build a model with top and bottom cap spars joined by a vertical grain webbing you've just built an I beam up. Understanding how forces are aligned and where the greatest magnitude of those forces are located is a huge key to understanding wing design.
For example "we" all "know" that you use a plywood spar joiner to join the wings together. However we've just created a lovely I beam with flat spruce top and bottom caps fitted out with nicely trimmed interspar webbing to handle the worst of loads. That's fine. But then we blindly join these two high stress items with a flat blade of plywood that just happens to have fully 1/2 of it's material oriented in the worst possible direction and put all the forces from the wide caps down into a few 1/32's of birch at the centerline joint. This is the absolute worst possible way to finish off a good wing design. We all do it and generally we get away with it. But it's hardly "elegant" and a full size aircraft designer would shudder and suffer from nightmares at the thought of trusting a human life to such an abomination. It's extremely seldom that we see a proper centerline spar connection where the spars are scarfed together or overlaped for a side grain to side grain joint or some other way of joining as much of the side grain of one spar to the other in as long a glue line as practical.
If there's a local club that you can join I'm sure some of the members will have a library from that vintage. You could likely set up some sort of a borrowing scheme with one or two of them.
It's a shame that sport fliers these days are all about "new" designs. As you say a lot of the old RCM plans are just as flyable today as before. What they do have that puts off far too many would be builders is too many pieces. But it's this number of parts that provides the look of the model. Ugly Stiks may fly just wonderfully but they are hardly a thing of beauty!
/me reaches for flak jacket and kevlar helmet
Another aspect of this is to look into how forces and stresses are analyzed in a cantilevered I beam. When you build a model with top and bottom cap spars joined by a vertical grain webbing you've just built an I beam up. Understanding how forces are aligned and where the greatest magnitude of those forces are located is a huge key to understanding wing design.
For example "we" all "know" that you use a plywood spar joiner to join the wings together. However we've just created a lovely I beam with flat spruce top and bottom caps fitted out with nicely trimmed interspar webbing to handle the worst of loads. That's fine. But then we blindly join these two high stress items with a flat blade of plywood that just happens to have fully 1/2 of it's material oriented in the worst possible direction and put all the forces from the wide caps down into a few 1/32's of birch at the centerline joint. This is the absolute worst possible way to finish off a good wing design. We all do it and generally we get away with it. But it's hardly "elegant" and a full size aircraft designer would shudder and suffer from nightmares at the thought of trusting a human life to such an abomination. It's extremely seldom that we see a proper centerline spar connection where the spars are scarfed together or overlaped for a side grain to side grain joint or some other way of joining as much of the side grain of one spar to the other in as long a glue line as practical.
11-04-2007, 12:28 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
I agree with everything that you said and will start looking for the mags. It does make sense though, about the construction articles in the older magazines as the trend now is ARFs and RTFs. There are probably many people who would not be flying RC were it not for those "kits", however I really enjoy building and flying an airplane that I built. Now, I want to design, build and fly. I like the way you think, thanks again.
11-04-2007, 02:09 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
I remember my first attempt into this hobby was scratch build a simple trainer airplane and so pleased with the results, I didn't follow a certain way learn as much as seeking the keys to answer my questions. then I studied more about aerodynamics when I was in last two years in my college. really I'm enjoying both building and flying (%50 / %50) and till now I didn't build a model from a kit.
11-04-2007, 03:12 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
ORIGINAL: mishal
I remember my first attempt into this hobby was scratch build a simple trainer airplane and so pleased with the results, I didn't follow a certain way learn as much as seeking the keys to answer my questions. then I studied more about aerodynamics when I was in last two years in my college. really I'm enjoying both building and flying (%50 / %50) and till now I didn't build a model from a kit.
I remember my first attempt into this hobby was scratch build a simple trainer airplane and so pleased with the results, I didn't follow a certain way learn as much as seeking the keys to answer my questions. then I studied more about aerodynamics when I was in last two years in my college. really I'm enjoying both building and flying (%50 / %50) and till now I didn't build a model from a kit.
01-01-2008, 07:33 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
ORIGINAL: winglift
What are the most important books that you would include in your model airplane design library including those out of print?
What are the most important books that you would include in your model airplane design library including those out of print?
Can you please summarise information on recommended books in the first message? It might be helpful for quickrefrence.
I'm personally looking for some most recommended book titles on balsa wood model airplane building. I'd like to find book written with same spirit as from design of Cleveland kits.
What you say about Walter Musciano books?
Thank you,
Kostya
01-01-2008, 08:19 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
The following has been a great resource for me...
"Basics of R/C Model Aircraft Design: Practical Techniques for Building Better Models", by Andy Lennon
"Basics of R/C Model Aircraft Design: Practical Techniques for Building Better Models", by Andy Lennon
01-03-2008, 02:43 AM
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RE: Model airplane design library
Chuck Cunningham did a series on model airplane design in RCM - must be a while ago, as Chuck has unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago already. The articles give rules of thumb for all the basic dimensions and ratios between the dimensions. No rocket science explanation, just rules to design a plane that flies well.
Chuck was one of the masters of sport plane design ... Miss Texas, Lazy Ace ( several sizes), ... Does anyone know if the bigger Fokker DVII he built was ever published as a plan? He mentioned it in his column in RCM a couple of times, but I never saw a plan or construction article for it.
Kris
Chuck was one of the masters of sport plane design ... Miss Texas, Lazy Ace ( several sizes), ... Does anyone know if the bigger Fokker DVII he built was ever published as a plan? He mentioned it in his column in RCM a couple of times, but I never saw a plan or construction article for it.
Kris
01-03-2008, 06:39 PM
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RE: Model airplane design library
Bruce, you R 100% right about those "older" mags. I have a buddy here in Manitoba that has given me the daunting task to scan & digitize all opf his RCM mags dating from the very early 60's thru the late 80's
He also cut out specific pages of his choosing from tons of other mags from way back when. Every week I dedicate a couple of evenings just zoning out on the scanner. At this point in time I must have a few GIG in nothing but B/W (grayscale) files.
Every now & then, I'll throw a few RGB files in there.
Tons of planes by now.
Once I have a few CD's full of data, I'll probably duplicate them just for the askin.
I'm finding that a lot of individuals are simply emailing and asking for specific planes - 1 @ a time
Being a professional photographer in days gone by, I got very pickey about overall quality.
I'll try to get a so-so LIST within the next few weeks and post accordingly.
marwen1
He also cut out specific pages of his choosing from tons of other mags from way back when. Every week I dedicate a couple of evenings just zoning out on the scanner. At this point in time I must have a few GIG in nothing but B/W (grayscale) files.
Every now & then, I'll throw a few RGB files in there.
Tons of planes by now.
Once I have a few CD's full of data, I'll probably duplicate them just for the askin.
I'm finding that a lot of individuals are simply emailing and asking for specific planes - 1 @ a time
Being a professional photographer in days gone by, I got very pickey about overall quality.
I'll try to get a so-so LIST within the next few weeks and post accordingly.
marwen1
01-04-2008, 12:09 AM
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RE: Model airplane design library
At this point, probably not. I have to look into copyright issues. The way I have rearranged the physical content of the plans, I may have a legitimate right to sell. What I'm getting at is this. I can print plans FULLSIZE, based on the overall WS desired by the person that wants a set of plans. If all I do is simply scan and burn a new Cd -- that is blatent copyright infringement.
Take a photograph, the instant you trip the shutted on the camera, YOU own the copyright to that image. If I rearrange any set of plans more than 20%, then, to my understanding, I can do anything I want with the new image. ... and that doesn't mean just shuffling the parts around on the paper.
There is a whole lot to look at if I ever did SELL. However, there is nothing to stop me from giving away.
Issues here are whether or not I earn any profit from someone elses work.
later,
marwen1
Take a photograph, the instant you trip the shutted on the camera, YOU own the copyright to that image. If I rearrange any set of plans more than 20%, then, to my understanding, I can do anything I want with the new image. ... and that doesn't mean just shuffling the parts around on the paper.
There is a whole lot to look at if I ever did SELL. However, there is nothing to stop me from giving away.
Issues here are whether or not I earn any profit from someone elses work.
later,
marwen1
