Designer's Notebook

Certain situations and configurations just call out for a ducted-fan installation. Barnaby Wainfan explains the benefits and drawbacks.

Seemingly inconsequential alterations—even mounting an inflight camera on the airframe—can result in big changes to an aircraft’s handling and performance.

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

Taxi testing may seem to be a mere formality, but it is a vital step toward bringing a new aircraft to flight, and is not without its dangers.

Taking off in an aircraft would seem to be a fairly simple, straightforward maneuver. But in fact it’s complicated, and a combination of factors must be just right for it to work.

Learn how wingtip vortices are generated and how wake turbulence can affect your aircraft.

Barnaby Wainfan explains the challenges designers face in creating viable STOL aircraft.

The way lift is distributed along a wing's span affects both the structure and its aerodynamics.

A pilots ability to recover from a spin depends just as much on the design characteristics of the airplane as on stick-and-rudder skills.

Barnaby Wainfan explains the role of properly designed wing-fuselage junctions in reducing interference drag.