Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Enker on April 17, 2009, 04:19:19 PM
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If I wanted to design my very own airplane and built it, what all should I know/specify/have to build one? Also, where could I learn more about how airfoils affect flight?
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NOTE: This is only a joke
(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j74/KarlInOhio/FighterDesignForDummies.png)
In all seriousness this is a very broad question and their is no easy answer. If you are really serious about designing and building your own aircraft, you may want to start with the EAA.
http://www.eaa.org/homebuilders/ (http://www.eaa.org/homebuilders/)
There are others' here that can give you good advice and direction as well.
Good luck,
Baumer
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I would agree with Baumer on most points but be carefull about your info and try to get an independet oppinion as one screw up can ruin the whole thing :noid. Fly high and may you never run out of gas :salute!
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Here is one for you,
http://www.clifdawson.ca/Pientenpol.html
http://www.cpc-world.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietenpol_Air_Camper
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If I wanted to design my very own airplane and built it, what all should I know/specify/have to build one? Also, where could I learn more about how airfoils affect flight?
Question 1. What do you want to use the plane for?
Question 2. Do you have any type of back ground in mechanical engineering?
HiTech
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If I wanted to design my very own airplane and built it, what all should I know/specify/have to build one? Also, where could I learn more about how airfoils affect flight?
If you wanted to build something you are actually going to fly in, I would *strongly* suggest plagiarizing someone else's design. :D If you want to get innovative, try RC.
The X-Plane series is kind of fun if you want an easy-to-use interface for fooling around with modifying airplanes and flying them in a sim.
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Question 1. What do you want to use the plane for? I plan on just flying it for fun, maybe taking up kids at the county fairs for a ride, as it beats lawn mowing.
Question 2. Do you have any type of back ground in mechanical engineering? None at all.
HiTech
If you wanted to build something you are actually going to fly in, I would *strongly* suggest plagiarizing someone else's design. :D If you want to get innovative, try RC.
The X-Plane series is kind of fun if you want an easy-to-use interface for fooling around with modifying airplanes and flying them in a sim.
I think I will try out RC planes first, because shop class isn't really a "safe" class to take at my school...
Thank you all for your replies! You will probably see me flying my monstrosity a week before we get the F-15.
:salute
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because shop class isn't really a "safe" class to take at my school...
There's more sex, fights, and other nonsense in our vocational building at our school than actual learning :lol
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shop class? :O
get your diploma first.
As far as building models go...it's an excellent hobby. About 13 years ago my father and I built a R/C P-51 mustang. It was 4 1/2 feet long or so...man that thing was a beauty. We took it to an R/C plane club (bunch of geeks) for its first flight. Two minutes into the flight it crashes and shatterd into 100 pieces :(. Spending time with my father was well worth it though!
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Enker,
I'm currently about a year and a half into designing a Formula 1 racer for Reno. I'll give you two books you should look at first:
1) Simplified Aircraft Design for Homebuilders by Dr. Dan Ramer. This book costs about $15 or so, and will give you a sneak peak at design analysis and some of the factors inherent in the design process. Dr. Ramer states plainly that the book is merely an introduction and references many more detailed books for specific design elements. Work through this book over the course of a couple days, and if you like what you've read so far, go to step two...
2) Aircraft Design, A Conceptual Approach, 4th Edition also by Dr. Dan Ramer. This book will run you around $100 and is a textbook quality resource that's used for design classes for Aerodynamic Engineering students. One of the classes I found that uses this book is a Masters degree capstone course, so its for real. This book is the meat and potatoes of what was glossed over in the first book. Strap on your Math Hat, and dust off the calculator and MS Excel, because you're getting ready to do math that (unless you were a math or engineering major) is going to knock your socks off. Once you get through this book (over the course of a few months) you will have merely scratched the surface of the design process. Once your design is conceptually complete, you begin the more difficult parts of actually analyzing how to turn your drawing on paper into an actual prototype.
What I'll say is that this stuff is not a casual excercise. It is not impossible for the lay person to do as evidenced by Peter Garrison's Melmoth aircraft. But, I'll tell you that you're going to invest a considerable amount of time and money simply doing analysis, lofting the drawings, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Modeling, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Modeling for the structural portions, etc. At some point though, you will have to find outside help, and that costs a lot of money. Since my design is going to be completely carbon fiber, kevlar and kevlar honeycomb, it was going to demand outside fabrication as well, since you can't do that stuff in your garage.
Ultimately, even if I never build the thing, I have learned an unbelievable amount of stuff about aircraft, aerodynamics, materials, etc. So, in that vein, its an awesome thing to get into, but just realize that its a whole lot of work, time, energy, and money to go from concept to finished aircraft.
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Enker,
I'm currently about a year and a half into designing a Formula 1 racer for Reno. I'll give you two books you should look at first:
1) Simplified Aircraft Design for Homebuilders by Dr. Dan Ramer. This book costs about $15 or so, and will give you a sneak peak at design analysis and some of the factors inherent in the design process. Dr. Ramer states plainly that the book is merely an introduction and references many more detailed books for specific design elements. Work through this book over the course of a couple days, and if you like what you've read so far, go to step two...
2) Aircraft Design, A Conceptual Approach, 4th Edition also by Dr. Dan Ramer. This book will run you around $100 and is a textbook quality resource that's used for design classes for Aerodynamic Engineering students. One of the classes I found that uses this book is a Masters degree capstone course, so its for real. This book is the meat and potatoes of what was glossed over in the first book. Strap on your Math Hat, and dust off the calculator and MS Excel, because you're getting ready to do math that (unless you were a math or engineering major) is going to knock your socks off. Once you get through this book (over the course of a few months) you will have merely scratched the surface of the design process. Once your design is conceptually complete, you begin the more difficult parts of actually analyzing how to turn your drawing on paper into an actual prototype.
What I'll say is that this stuff is not a casual excercise. It is not impossible for the lay person to do as evidenced by Peter Garrison's Melmoth aircraft. But, I'll tell you that you're going to invest a considerable amount of time and money simply doing analysis, lofting the drawings, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Modeling, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Modeling for the structural portions, etc. At some point though, you will have to find outside help, and that costs a lot of money. Since my design is going to be completely carbon fiber, kevlar and kevlar honeycomb, it was going to demand outside fabrication as well, since you can't do that stuff in your garage.
Ultimately, even if I never build the thing, I have learned an unbelievable amount of stuff about aircraft, aerodynamics, materials, etc. So, in that vein, its an awesome thing to get into, but just realize that its a whole lot of work, time, energy, and money to go from concept to finished aircraft.
Thank you for the resources, I just wanted something to do over the summer that had math in it, but I guess the project will be a wee bit longer than a summer. :salute
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Also, I forgot to add a resource on airfoils...
First, the veritable bible of airfoils is Theory of Wing Sections by Abbot and Von Doenhoff. It presents just about all NACA airfoil research in one book, complete with all the math behind it.
If you're looking for a very short and interesting commentary on airfoil performance, I heartily suggest GA Airfoils by Harry Riblett. He criticizes some of the original NACA and current NASA research and presents some of his own methods of designing airfoils--great stuff in this short resource.
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shop class? :O
get your diploma first.
As far as building models go...it's an excellent hobby. About 13 years ago my father and I built a R/C P-51 mustang. It was 4 1/2 feet long or so...man that thing was a beauty. We took it to an R/C plane club (bunch of geeks) for its first flight. Two minutes into the flight it crashes and shatterd into 100 pieces :(. Spending time with my father was well worth it though!
i have had 6 home built r/c's through my life The first i had was a Pitts Special in "Rothmans Aerobatics Display Team" livery.
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try:
www.supermarineaircraft.com
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Thank you for the resources, I just wanted something to do over the summer that had math in it, but I guess the project will be a wee bit longer than a summer. :salute
:rofl I'm pretty sure that's right especially if you're going to design it too.
My oldest brother (almost) built an airplane once but I think he was working off someone elses blueprints. He cut and formed all the pieces out of sheet metals of some sort. There were parts lying all over around his garage for a couple of years as he slowly made progress. All the major components were pretty much complete when he gave up and sold it. Not sure if whoever bought it ever got it finished and flying or not.
Now he's got a basement full of RC's.
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Stoney has pretty much named every important book in Aircraft Design. As a Senior Aerospace Engineering student who just completed his senior design project (a Heavy Lift RC plane), I can attest to the power contained within those books. Hail be to Dan Raymer!
:aok :aok :aok