Design Software

[Dedman]

I am looking for a design software package that will take the known parameters of an airplane: wingspan, airfoil type, desired wing loading etc, and provide the general sizing dimension and stability and control coefficients. I am currently building a spreadsheet to do this in excel but it is a tedious process.

Is there any software out there that does this for model airplanes? As fun as it would be to dig through all my old engineering books, I would rather use an off the shelf package.

[Dave Robelen]

Hi Dedman,
That would be a neat product if anyone could get it all together. Too few of our people in the hobby industry are "real" engineering types to put this sort of comprehensive package together.
There is another option that has been useful to me. While Great Planes does not promote the idea, the Realflight sim program allows you to vary all of the parameters of a proposed design, and of course flight test it. While it has limitations, in the comparisons I have run with "real" models, the results are pretty decent. You can go so far as to configure a design with a rear mounted engine and canard if so inclined. The one fly in the ointment is that the graphic package continues to present the original design, regardless of the mods. Something to think about.
Regards, Dave

[Dedman]

I think I smell a business opportunity.

[SoarNeck]

I did put something together at:

http://www.soarcalgary.com/Extras/Articles/Sailplane%20Design%20Spreadsheet

...but it's not quite what you describe. It will give you stability parameters based on your input, but it requires analysis of the output.

Hope it helps, at any rate, and I feel your pain regarding building these sheets. Hours and hours and hours...mainly charged to projects that weren't exactly airplane related :o

[Don Cooper]

You can also do the parametric analyses Dave mentioned using the free FMS simulation. I can't vouch for the numerical accuracy, but the trends from parameter variations seem to be reasonable.