Aircraft Design

Hi Everyone,

 

I don't post much here but I do lurk quite a bit.

 

For those of you in RA-Aus I used to write the "Design Notes" column in Sport Pilot Magazine, and over the last year or so I've had a few people suggest I make the three years of design articles available online. It's taken me a while but I finally got round to it and have posted them to my blog site.The index for the site is here with a complete list of articles:

 

Index

 

The articles are as follows you can navigate to them via the links.

 

Introduction – In The Beginning

 

Designing My Own – Design Notes

 

Configuration & Layout – Configuration & Layout

 

Wing Shape – Wing Shape

 

Aerofoil Selection – Aerofoil Selection

 

Drag – Such a Drag

 

Materials – Material World

 

Flaps – All in a Flap

 

Landing Gear – Happy Landings

 

Stability – Introduction – Are You Unstable?

 

Stability – Longitudinal – Perfect Pitch?

 

Stability – Weight & Balance – A Weighty Issue

 

Stability – Lateral & Directional – Thinking Laterally

 

Fuel Systems – More Fuel You?

 

Cooling – Keepin’ Cool

 

Controls – Control Freak

 

Trim Systems – Just a Trim

 

Cockpit Design – The Workshop?

 

Propellers – Prop Me Up

 

Spins – All in a Spin

 

Design for Spin Safety – The Spin Doctor

 

Aircraft Loads – Shouldering the Load

 

Limit Loads for Design – Feel The Force

 

Gust Loading – Gone With The Wind

 

Stress, Strain, Strength & Stiffness – Biscuits, Jelly, Nylon & Steel

 

Load Paths – The Path To Enlightenment

 

Design for STOL – Short & Sweet

 

Propeller Effects – The ‘P’ Factor

 

Swept Wings – A Clean Sweep

 

Joint Design – Keeping It Together

 

Glued/Bonded Joints – Stick With It

 

Bolted Joints – A Bolt From The Blue

 

Bolts in Shear – Shear Excitement

 

Riveted Joints – Riveting Stuff

 

Fatigue – Chronic Fatigue

 

Designing for Fatigue – Battle Fatigue

 

V-Tails – To ‘V’ or not to ‘V’

 

I hope you find these enjoyable / useful

 

Cheers

 

Dave

 

 

Dave. It is good to see all your articles available in one place. I found them informative and well written Thanks.

 

 

Great job Dave. I will save to my files for sure. Thank you

 

 

Just had a quick look at The Spin Doctor - I like it. Good work, I will look at others while on hols at the beach.

 

 

Great addition to the site, thanks for sharing these Dave. Already added to my compulsory reading list....

 

 

Great addition to the site, thanks for sharing these Dave. Already added to my compulsory reading list....

Thanks! I like your avatar, I learnt to fly in a yellow and blue thruster sprint. Happy memories!

 

 

Informative and easy to comprehend material. Thank you for your efforts and posting.

 

 

So where are your designs Dave?

 

 

Thanks Dave, I read your articles on Sport Pilot and must say they were the best explained design articles I've ever read.

 

Well done!

 

 

So where are your designs Dave?

Mostly on my hard drive, some of it is in the workshop. It turns out designing and building from scratch takes a really long time. Especially when it's competing for time with other things... like writing design articles! I set myself a ten year goal, but if I get it done in less than fifteen I'll be happy. The journey is the reward, the final plane will be the icing on the cake.

 

 

Welcome to recflying Dave.

 

You'll get used to FT. He hovers somewher between troll, devils advocate and self appointed recflying sheriff....lol.

 

 

Thanks Mum

 

 

Welcome to recflying Dave.You'll get used to FT. He hovers somewher between troll, devils advocate and self appointed recflying sheriff....lol.

Lol... If I read between the lines FT has a fair point. Why should anyone trust my opinion, I don't have a flying design to prove I'm not talking rubbish!

The articles were my response to trawling through textbooks, NACA reports etc. for my own design work. There is a lot of great information out there, but it's often incredibly dry and not very accessible. I amassed a pile of notes and though it would be good to share what I had learned in an accessible way. There are plenty of people interested in aircraft design who don't want to read a textbook or learn the maths because they don't intend to design a plane.

 

Reading these articles won't make you an aeronautical engineer, they are deliberately 'engineering for entertainment'. The technical content is not my original opinion, it is the distilled knowledge of others delivered in a more readable documentary style. Rest assured I did my due diligence, there's a good 40 hours of work in each article, and as an added bonus this is the Internet so if I am wrong I can guarantee someone, (everyone!), will point it out! In summary, if you are suspicious of my credentials, don't read the articles (or scour them closely and point out my mistakes for the benefit of the community!). As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for", and these are free!

 

Cheers

 

Dave

 

 

Excellent resource, & very well written. Thank you very much for your time & effort in putting these notes together.

 

Bruce

 

 

I just assume one gets interested in aircraft design because one wants to design aircraft, its obvious that Dave have got some sweet designs in the pipeline.