From: Derek Boyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Another really cool spreadsheet is Calcula8 available from Eduardo Molfino > ([EMAIL PROTECTED] or hotmail.com). I use this to calculate wing area, > AR, WACs and MACS. It's a really good tool, and combines with the offerings > from Hazel and Hepperle to give a powerful set of toys for us would-be > designers to play with. Buy an airfoil tool (Compufoil is my choice, but > there are others) and you'll be gleefully stuck behind the 'puter for days. I have the tools John Hazel and think they are terrific. The fact that I can combine them with some spreadsheet-based simulation programs I have is really nice. They are great tools for wing design. Nobody has mentioned "Plane Geometry" from Blaine Rawdon. It's not free ($15 the last I checked), but is an incredible collection of integrated of design and analysis tools. This is the next tool you should use after you design your wing with John's spreadsheets. It will allow you to bring that wing into the context of an airplane and analyze (in particular) the stability and control (static and dynamic!) in pitch and yaw, taking into consideration the 3-D aspects such as dihedral. One of the most interesting things about Plane Geometry is that you can use it in an analysis mode and enter the measurments from and existing design. Or, you can use it in a design mode and enter the characteristics you want to the plane to have (based on stability coeffients). The really nice thing is that no matter which way you enter the data, it gives you, as an output, the data you need to use it in the other mode. So, if you have an airplane that handles just the way you think it should, you enter the measurements in the analysis mode and it gives you the salient aero-coefficients. Then, you can design a new airplane using those coefficients. The result is the new airplane will handle just like (or very close) to the one you took measurements from even though it may not look similar at all. One more thing, it has a V-tail or conventional tail option. So, you can design your aiplane with either tail, correctly! I don't know if Blaine is still making this gem available, but if you want to design more than wings, you should get a copy. It's a bargain! Kevin McKiou RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
