I've been off dealing with an imploding book production schedule at work, but I finally got a chance to get back to my airplane design. After finishing up a detailed component-buildup drag coefficient analysis of my airplane, I'm finding a tremendous respect for Dan Raymer's 'quick and dirty' estimate methods. 
His 'first order' sizing method predicted the MTOW and power-required of my airplane to within a few percent of the detailed method. And now that I've finished up the drag coefficient analysis:
Fast and dirty method: CD0=0.01485
Detailed component method: CD0=0.01494
Not baaaaad...
Glad I did the detailed analysis, but 'next time' I'm gonna trust the quick and dirty to get me more in the ballpark first!
His 'first order' sizing method predicted the MTOW and power-required of my airplane to within a few percent of the detailed method. And now that I've finished up the drag coefficient analysis:
Fast and dirty method: CD0=0.01485
Detailed component method: CD0=0.01494
Not baaaaad...
Glad I did the detailed analysis, but 'next time' I'm gonna trust the quick and dirty to get me more in the ballpark first!
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