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EASY AIRCRAFT DESIGN

by FLyBoy38L | March 23, 2014
(25 Ratings)

Posted in HOW TO

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Hey Guys,

My friends at Darter Design, LLC andI wanted to give you all open ended step-by-step instructions on how to design a basic airplane with a large degree of
artistic freedom and easy mathematics! You will need to watch the units you use! No crazy engineering needed here. I'll be using an example of a conventional
airplane with the main wing in front of the stabilizers (Stab). I'll also be using simple tapered wings to keep complexity low.

To start out analyzing your design you'll need a 3 view drawing of your plane on a piece of paper. I suggest a scale drawing on a piece of graph paper. Here is a
great example;

In aircraft design there are some critical measures that will determine if your plane will y. Those measures are the Static Margin (SM), Center of Gravity (CG),
Horizontal Stabilizer Volume (VH), Vertical Stabilizer Volume (VV), and Cubic Wing Loading (CWL). When power is concerned the additional measures of Power-to-
Weight Ratio (P/W) and Thrust-to-Weight Ratio (T/W) are very important.

In order to nd these key measures we must rst nd a few other measures before hand. These measures would be the dimensions and areas of the main
wing, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, the aerodynamic centers (AC), Neutral Point (NP), and the distance between the two centers. Don't worry about the AC
and NP yet, I'll show you how to nd them!

When nding the area and dimensions, the critical ones are the labeled dimensions A (Root Chord), B (Semi-Span), & C (Tip Chord) in the picture below;

With those dimensions and areas recorded we now move onto nding the Aerodynamic Center. The AC is where all the aerodynamic forces act of the wing. It is
like a CG but for air. Below is a graphical representation of how to nd AC of a wing panel by using the Mean Aerodynamic Chord (MAC) or Geometric Mean
Chord (GMC). This method will work for most wings, tapered or not. Take the lengths you found before and add the tip chord measure (C) in front of and behind
the Root Chord (A). Next add the Root Chord (A) in front of and behind the Tip Chord (C). Draw a diagonal line from each end of the newly created lines and nd
where the two intersect. Now measure the distance of the GMC as seen in the picture below. Write this length down as it is important! With the GMC found,
take 25% (1/4) of that distance from the leading edge and trace over to the root of the wing panel. This point is the Aerodynamic Center of the wing panel. Find
this point for the main wing and stabilizers before continuing.

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Next Stop, Neutral Point! (NP)

With the AC of all your wing panels found, we can nd the NP of your airplane. The NP is like the AC of your entire airplane. With your drawing ready, measure
LAC (The distance between the AC of the Main Wing and Horizontal Stab.) and use that in addition to the areas of both to nd the length D. The equation is
listed in the middle of the three in the picture below. We can now use D to nd the location of NP by subtracting it from LAC. Great! Now we can nd the
location of the Center of Gravity (CG). This is found by determining the Static Margin. The Static Margin is a measure of stability of your plane. Typically the SM
is a distance based on the length of the GMC or MAC. Most planes have a SM of 5% to 15% of the MAC which means the CG is 5% MAC to 15% MAC in front of
the NP. 5% is limited stability and 15% is great stability. Never put the CG behind the NP!!!!! Just don't do it! You've been warned.

Awesome! We have NP, ACs, and CG found. What is next? the Tail Volumes! What are they? They are a measure of the eectiveness of the stabilizers. We'll start
with the horizontal stabilizer. Using the Areas, Lengths, and MAC use the equation at the top of the picture above to nd the Horizontal Stabilizer Volume (VH).
Typical values for this are between .35 and .8. .35 is less eective and .8 is SUPER eective. Now we can move onto nding the Vertical Stabilizer Volume (VV).
Below is a photo of how to nd VV.

Using the areas and distances once again, use the equation listed above and nd VV. Typical values for VV are between .02 and .05. Once again .02 is a less
eective tail and .05 is a SUPER eective tail.

Wow, so we actually are almost done. Congrats on making it this far! Last but not least is a little secret called the Cubic Wing Loading (CWL). CWL is the
responsible big brother of regular 2D wing loading. What do I mean? This value doesn't change with scale which means a full scale plane and model version of
the same plane should have the same CWL if they want have the same ight characteristics. To nd this, it gets a bit tricky. Use the equation below to help. WCL
equals the weight of your plane divided by the wing area multiplied by the square root of the wing area,

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Similar aircraft have a range of WCL which dictates their ight abilities. Here is a short list of those values;

0-4 oz/ft^3 = Gliders

4-7 oz/ft^3 = Trainers
7-13 oz/ft^3 = Sport/Aerobatic
13+ oz/ft^3 = Racing

Depending on what type of plane you are designing, pick a value to use it to nd the weight of your plane in oz. This will give you a goal for what your plane
should weigh before you take o! By this I mean the All Up Weight (AUW) with batteries or fuel installed. It is a great point to work backwards from the nd the
suggested weight of your airframe once you have your electronics selected.

Speaking of electronics, one last tidbit of information to help make sure your aircraft will y. Power is an important factor for model aircraft. Here are two great
ratios to consider in the design of your airplane. These are the mentioned ratio of Power-to-Weight (PW) and Static Thrust-to-Weight (STW). There is a general
range of PW that dictates performance. It is listed below;

25 W/lb = Minimum for level ight

50 W/lb = Trainer or Casual ight
75 W/lb = Sport/Aerobatic ight
100 W/lb = Aggressive Aerobatic ight
150 W/lb = 3D Aerobatic ight
200 W/lb = Unlimited high-speed vertical ight

Use the specications of your motor to nd the Wattage (Power) of your system and use that to determine the PW. For example a certain motor I use has a
rated power of 150W when running on 3S Lipos. I take that 150W and divide that by the airplane's weight (AUW).

Now we come to the nal measure. Whew, so much work but only a little left until you get to go building! Or redesigning if your design fell short. But once you
get all other measures conrmed, to help choose a prop or power system, the Static Trust-to-Weight ratio is suggested to be around .5. This will help ensure
you have enough pull to power around the sky and not fall like a brick. Use data from the motor manufacturer, ying buddies, or electronic calculators to
determine the Static Thrust (ST) of your motor/prop combo. Take this value and divde it by your airplane's AUW. Then you have your STW which I would
recomend to be around .5 if possible.

Other than that that's all there is the aircraft design for the weekend warrior.That's all folks!

I hope you gain some great info from this article. It summarizes my understanding of aircraft design and hopefully aids other as well. Feel free to comment, PM,
or email me with further questions or requests.

Thanks to my friends over atDual Design R/Cfor conrming my thoughts and aiding me in writing this article.

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