Designer's Notebook

The tail of the airplane performs three functions: It stabilizes the aircraft in both pitch and yaw. It provides trim. It provides control power...

Multiple engines complicate design, because not only must the airplane be able to maintain flight on one engine, but also the pilot must be able to control it. Lateral/directional stability issues are key;

Last month we looked at roll control schemes for airplanes where high lift or other requirements do not leave enough room on the wing’s...

Bolted joints are pretty simple. Drill some holes, drop a bolt into them, add a washer and a nut, and torque to the...

We’ve touched on this during previous discussions of slipstream (most recently in the April 2023 issue), but there are several power and propeller effects...

At this point in the design process, we have gotten the airplane sized, balanced, and after six months of consideration gotten the landing gear...

Builders are often in a rush to prove the airworthiness of their homebuilt projects, but thorough flight-testing is essential.

Pilots, especially those in low-powered aircraft, must always know how much energy they have available to maintain flight.

In preliminary design and for performance calculations, we treat the engine, propeller and airframe as separate entities. The only engine effect we typically consider...

Columnist Barnaby Wainfan discusses the factors that affect the longitudinal stability of an aircraft during a variety of maneuvers. Designers make compromises to keep stick forces down so that a pilot can control an airplane, but sometimes they go too far, and light control forces can result in problems that are just as serious as those posed by forces that are too heavy. Whats a designer to do? The most important considerations are presented.