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Why am I not seeing any posts from people using the Mazda Rotary Engine?

My airplane is primarily rivited aluminum construction. It is my understanding that the metal airframe can be used as the return leg of DC electrical circuits. My question is, is it worth is to use the airframe instead of dedicated return wires, given all the bonding consideratons of an...

I am 10.5 years into my build and I am about to start doing some wiring for the first time. What wire gauge do I need to power my navigation lights out at the wingtips? Does anyone have a table of wire gauges for typical systems of a general aviation aircraft?

Is there a minimum tubing ID for pitot and AoA systems? The length of the run for these tubes is about 16 feet.

Is it expected that polysulfide will adhear to aluminum fuel tank part mating surfaces, or does the fuel cause it to debond. If it does debond, does the polysulfide continue to keep the tank sealed as long as the material stays in place, sandwiched between the mating parts, including rivets?

I am installing the vent line into my integral aluminum wing fuel tank, using a standard AN bulkhead fitting. What kind of fuel sealant should I use? The nut that secures the fitting is inside the tank. How do I ensure that the nut will not loosen? Do I use a thread locking compound or...

What type of pull rivet material should I use on my aluminum skins, aluminum or stainless?

Why are airplanes designed to allow a pilot to starve his engine when he has another tank that is full??? My design has two wing tanks thet feed into a common sump. No selector valve.

I would like to know how to close up an aluminum wet-wing fuel tank so that it will never, ever leak in a thousand years. I have never done this before, but I think I have some pretty good ideas about how to do it. I want to run them past you veterans to see if you have any better ideas. I...

I am always on the look out for "new" ideas in old places. Here's one...the flap of the OV-10 Bronco has a Krueger flap at it's leading edge; a flap on a flap. This is the only plane I know of that has this. I have already drawn this up to go on my plane.

Because I am wanting to give my plane STOL performance, I must allocate a large percentage of the wing trailing edge to the flap, leaving only about 20% of the span for ailerons. Therefore my ailerons must be very effective. They did this on the Heilo Courier, but they used spoilers located...

Why have detachable wing tips? It is extra work to make separate wing tips and to install all those nutplates. Does it only make sense to have them detachable if they are make of composite and they have fancy compound curves? What if your design does not have compound curves and therefore can...

There are a number of ways to prevent the aileron from stalling at high AoA, like fences, vortex generators, slots, slats, and Junkers ailerons, (did I miss any). But which one is, the simplest, and more importantly, the most effective in staying out of a spin? I really like what happens on...

This thread is a take off from the the thread titled "Novel Flaperons", because it has to do with the use of the trailing surfaces of the wing to perform a little different function. My tandem seat, pilot in front design has an aft shifting CG problem to contend with. Can I address this by...

I have just dreamt up a novel idea for a flaperon. It may solve the problem of it stalling in flap mode due to the increased coef of lift. Instead of the aileron deflecting down, as does the flap, it only moves aft. This increases wing area, and opens a slot to blow high energy air over the...

How does Permatex compare with Polysulfide as a gasoline sealant?

Why is it that so many planes have aileron that do not extend all the way to the tip, rather, they stop where the full-chord fiberglass wingtip starts? Is it just cheaper and easier to make a one-piece, full-chord wingtip?

In order for the firewall to be true to it's name I am assuming that all stainless steel firewalls are constructed using steel fasteners and steel stiffeners, if any. If we had a firewall that was attached and stiffened with aluminum, then in a fire, these supporting aluminum members would fail...

What angle of attack should a tricycle gear plane have while on the ground. I'm thinking it should be just a little negative to keep it on the ground until pilot gives input, but not any more than necessary, as that I suppose could contribute to pilot induced oscillation. A little negative...

So with X-Plane I understand that you can create a model of your design and fly it in the computer. How do you do that? Does it give you CAD capability? Do you punch in all the numbers and it creates it for you mathematically or what? I heard that you have to pay the people at X-Plane to...