Designer's Notebook

Algebra and the elevator control system.

Got separation anxiety? Vortex generators can keep the airflow attached where it belongs.

Barnaby Wainfan explores the optimum size of a wing and the best ways to balance performance and efficiency.

Design process: wing size and landing distance.

Gyroplanes, part 4.

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

Barnaby Wainfan examines a sneaky and sometimes little understood cause of in-flight scares and engine failures: carb ice.

Flight testing for longitudinal stability problems continues this month as columnist Barnaby Wainfan details tests for stick force as related to trim and stick-free stability of an aircraft. The object is to gather data and analyze it to see if the hypotheses about the nature of the problem hold up under scrutiny.

For the last few months, we have been looking at how the planform affects both the distribution of lift and the distribution of lift...

Last month we took a look at the trade-offs the designer should consider when defining the flap system for the airplane. The choice comes...