airplane designing

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Permalink Reply by jaron on February 7, 2010 at 11:58pm

Beside DIY Drones join RC related forums and ask specific questions (RCGroups).

Find the basic parameters that are defined by your mission like weight, flight endurance, area of operations etc.

Copy and customize. Get a feeling for what's possible and have a look at what others have done (e.g. UAV Flying Wing)

Read readable books about the subject like those from Martin Simons.

Use free tools for the (iterating) design process.
Calculate your power system: Drive Calculator
Draw the plan: Proge CAD 2008 Smart
Maybe visualize your drawing in 3D: GoogleSketchUp
Calculate the center of gravity: WinLaengs4

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Permalink Reply by Zane the brain on February 8, 2010 at 5:42pm

wow jaron, you built that UAV!? thats pretty nice. i think to design my first plane im going to simply modify someone else's design to fit what i want (may i copy yours?). also, i have one question about the cad software. it asks for my address and zip code and junk. why does it need all that? can i get the software without giving them that information?

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Permalink Reply by Tim McMahan on February 9, 2010 at 5:32am

I couldn't agree more with "copy and customize". Head over to RC groups, I'm a huge fan of "foamies- scratchbuilt". If you find a plane that seems like it has the flight characteristics and payload you're looking for, you can always customize the heck out of it if you pay attention to what you're doing. I loosely based my twin boom on a tractor plane from there. I used the general dimensions of the wing and H-stab, but mashed up just about everything else. I wound up with a plane that doesn't even resemble the original, but I learned alot and it flies great. Study, study, study the general aerodynamics of the plane, then you'll know what NOT to change.

Tim

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Permalink Reply by jaron on February 9, 2010 at 5:38pm

Feel free to copy my designs.

All you need is a valid email address and the folks from ProgeCAD will send you a registration number.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Presley on February 9, 2010 at 10:46am

I'm no expert, but the info on Airfield Models looks quite interesting and useful.

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Permalink Reply by Zane the brain on February 9, 2010 at 5:29pm

i just got a weird idea! what if you bought two easy stars, chopped off the pointed wingtips, glued the two planes together at the wings, put them on the same frequency, and fly it. would this plan work?

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Permalink Reply by Tim McMahan on February 9, 2010 at 6:09pm

I'd wager that it WOULD fly. No need for the same frequency though, just us y-cables. If you look into some German R&D from WWII, thats the basis of some of their planes. The second cockpit wasn't needed, so you could fill it with m ore fuel or ammo. I would suggest connecting the tails as well though. You could always test the theory with those 5 dollar foam gliders. :)

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Permalink Reply by Sgt Ric on February 9, 2010 at 7:37pm

This has been done... read the threads about EZ mods at rcgroups.

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Permalink Reply by Zane the brain on February 11, 2010 at 3:49pm

ok i think ill test it out with two paper airplanes, then, if it works, ill try the full size way.

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Permalink Reply by Zane the brain on February 11, 2010 at 6:55pm

it works!

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