Designer's Notebook

There are some situations where there isn’t enough room on the wing’s trailing edge to split the functions cleanly between an inboard flap and...

A V-tail is a configuration where the horizontal stabilizer and vertical fin are replaced by a pair of surfaces mounted at a high dihedral...

Spring systems.

VTOL safety and control problems.

Airplanes are surprisingly flexible, and changes in their shape can affect aerodynamic characteristics. Barnaby Wainfan explains how the two are coupled.

This month we use the accumulated flight-test data to determine what exactly is causing the unacceptable flying qualities of the airplane so that the best way to fix the problem can be identified;

Design process, part 6-obstacles.

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...

Design process-tail volume. By Barnaby Wainfan.

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