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Barnaby Wainfan

Barnaby Wainfan
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Barnaby is a Technical Fellow for Northrop Grumman’s Advanced Design organization. A private pilot with single-engine and glider ratings, Barnaby has been involved in the design of unconventional airplanes including canards, joined wings, flying wings and some too strange to fall into any known category.
BAC 1-11 to illustrate pitch characteristics

Build, Test, Refine and Fix—Part 5: High AoA Pitch Characteristics

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Evaluating pitch stability, stick force gradients, and pitch-up warnings in stall testing to ensure safe handling at high angles of attack.

Build, Test, Refine and Fix—Part 4: Stall Characteristics

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Stall behavior plays a critical role in flight testing. Learn how design tweaks like stall strips and slots improve safety during early flights.
Taildragger aircraft at the point of transition from taxiing to flight.

Build, Test, Refine and Fix—Part 3: High-Speed Taxi Testing

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High-speed taxi testing requires precise control, detailed planning and cautious execution as speeds approach stall and rotation thresholds.

Build, Test, Refine and Fix—Part 2: Taxi Testing

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All aircraft testing, including taxi tests, requires planning and discipline.

Build, Test, Refine and Fix—Part 1: Ground Tests

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At some point, a configuration of the airplane is frozen, a prototype is built and testing begins.

Iterate, Modify and Fix

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Wind tunnel.

Magic Configurations

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Designers are continually trying to create new and better machines that will outperform and outsell what is currently available.

Marketability

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The manufacturer must be able to sell enough airplanes to stay in business and make some money.

Manufacturing Considerations

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The designer must consider all three factors: Mission, Manufacturing and Marketing.

Choosing the Configuration

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Most of our recent discussions on the process of designing an airplane were based on the assumption that the airplane has a generally conventional...

In Case You Missed It

My Home Airport

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Recently I walked into Van’s Aircraft and kissed the cutest engineer I could find....

Completions

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Builders share their successes.

Second Chance Six

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Part 7: Did you know that trailering an airplane across town is an all-day event? I didn’t.

Going Overboard

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Have you ever lost anything out of an airplane? Gravity being omnipresent—and apparently increasing...