Like many folks, I have a lot of ideas for great small airplanes. In my case, I think often about:
1) A two-place Mini-Imp
2) A simple, two place composite aircraft (think "composite Sonex"). Foldable wings (ala Mustang II or S-18), hot-wired wings and tail surfaces, fold-a-plane fuselage construction, etc.
3) A 50% scale Rutan Defiant (twin VW power)
While I'm familiar with some tools one could use to get a drawing and even a glimpse of possible performance (X-Plane), I wonder if there's anything out there to allow an amateur to do true FEA and other high-fidelity structural analysis. Then, what about things like flutter that are extremely hard to model--is it just rules of thumb and test flying? Seems like some high adventure.
Building someone else's design is probably enough of a challenge for me, but I'll always wonder if I could have created something new and, maybe, better if I'd started with a blank sheet. Any insights from those who have done it or tried it? What's the process?
1) A two-place Mini-Imp
2) A simple, two place composite aircraft (think "composite Sonex"). Foldable wings (ala Mustang II or S-18), hot-wired wings and tail surfaces, fold-a-plane fuselage construction, etc.
3) A 50% scale Rutan Defiant (twin VW power)
While I'm familiar with some tools one could use to get a drawing and even a glimpse of possible performance (X-Plane), I wonder if there's anything out there to allow an amateur to do true FEA and other high-fidelity structural analysis. Then, what about things like flutter that are extremely hard to model--is it just rules of thumb and test flying? Seems like some high adventure.
Building someone else's design is probably enough of a challenge for me, but I'll always wonder if I could have created something new and, maybe, better if I'd started with a blank sheet. Any insights from those who have done it or tried it? What's the process?
