Hi, I'm new to posting on this site though I've spent many late night reading through the composite threads. I'd like to let you know my experience as it is relevant to a question I wish to raise. I am a multihull yacht designer and builder so I have plenty of experience with most areas of composites including carbon masts and spars. I want to design and build a composite aircraft and would like to hear from some of the more expert members of this forum whether my approach will work designing an aircraft.
When I design a new model of multihull yacht I draw it up in 3d CAD using Rhino software. I use my experience to determine core, laminate and reinforcement thickness and some simple engineering to calculated rig loads to determine laminates for carbon chain plates etc. When I have the entire boat modeled I send it off to a composite engineer who then does an finite element analysis and who then comes back to me with advise on where I can save weight or gain needed strength or stiffness.
This is basically the approach I would like to take to design my plane. I will draw it up using cores and layups that I think will work from my experience, from calculations and from information gleaned from existing designs. I will send it off to my composite engineer friend who can run it through an FEA.
I am particularly taken by the Millennium Master, Tarragon, Blakshape sort of plane so I'm thinking of buying a set of Asso x plans as a good design basis for designing a composite version.
What do you guys think?
When I design a new model of multihull yacht I draw it up in 3d CAD using Rhino software. I use my experience to determine core, laminate and reinforcement thickness and some simple engineering to calculated rig loads to determine laminates for carbon chain plates etc. When I have the entire boat modeled I send it off to a composite engineer who then does an finite element analysis and who then comes back to me with advise on where I can save weight or gain needed strength or stiffness.
This is basically the approach I would like to take to design my plane. I will draw it up using cores and layups that I think will work from my experience, from calculations and from information gleaned from existing designs. I will send it off to my composite engineer friend who can run it through an FEA.
I am particularly taken by the Millennium Master, Tarragon, Blakshape sort of plane so I'm thinking of buying a set of Asso x plans as a good design basis for designing a composite version.
What do you guys think?