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Amateur Aircraft builders?

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GrantR

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
45
Location
Plains, GA
I see fairly frequent posts asking how to design an airplane. I for one made a similar post when I joined the forum. Some of the designs out there mainly ultralight type aircraft do not seem to be that complicated .

The weedhopper, Lazair and the Quicksiver come to mind as being very simple designs. Wasn’t the 1st quicksilver airfoil shaped around a tire?


A lot of people post negative things about the Quad City Challengers concerning the tube and gusset construction to the yaw issues along with the very flexible tubes connected the tail surfaces and the roney brackets connected the wing struts. However the Challengers have been around a while and still are a favorite to many flyers.

I fly a Kolb MK III. I don’t know much about the designer or what kind of background he had to know how to design an airplane.

I am sure many of the ultralights designed were designed by amateurs who didn’t probably have a clue when it came to complicated aeronautical design formulas and stress calculations and so on.

Am I right or wrong? If I am right, was it just chance that these inexperienced guys go it right by guessing or using the that looks about right approach?

 
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