Airplane design.

In article . net, Richard Lamb
says...

Just as a friendly challenge to anyone foolish enough...

Design an airplane within the 254 pound weight limit.

Clean sheet of paper.
254 pounds empty weight.
Your choice of engines, design, materials.

Where would you start?

I for one have done it www.cgsaviation.com/hawkultra.htm and so have
others.Mine not also meets the 254 # but the stall speed and top speed criteria
set by the feds in part 103-7. Although I don't think this is the style of plane
the original questioner had in mind. Weight is relative and on this end of the
spectrum alum sheet gets heavy as a build material.Especially if it's over .020.

The Hummel plane is all alum and can carry a 200# guy has a fairly good sized
wing, so it's not a rocket at landing.But it still tips the scales at almost
300# empty.

It's an interesting challenge something us Ultralight guys have had to work with
for about 25 years. One thing I did was to not design to the 170# FAA pilot
since most pilots I know and and those I see at airshows haven't been 170# since
8th grade ,that includes me as well :-)So your design should use 200# -220# for
the design criteria. Good luck.

See ya

Chuck S

ChuckSlusarczyk wrote:
In article . net, Richard Lamb
says...

Just as a friendly challenge to anyone foolish enough...

Design an airplane within the 254 pound weight limit.

Clean sheet of paper.
254 pounds empty weight.
Your choice of engines, design, materials.

Where would you start?


I for one have done it www.cgsaviation.com/hawkultra.htm and so have
others.Mine not also meets the 254 # but the stall speed and top speed criteria
set by the feds in part 103-7. Although I don't think this is the style of plane
the original questioner had in mind. Weight is relative and on this end of the
spectrum alum sheet gets heavy as a build material.Especially if it's over .020.

The Hummel plane is all alum and can carry a 200# guy has a fairly good sized
wing, so it's not a rocket at landing.But it still tips the scales at almost
300# empty.

It's an interesting challenge something us Ultralight guys have had to work with
for about 25 years. One thing I did was to not design to the 170# FAA pilot
since most pilots I know and and those I see at airshows haven't been 170# since
8th grade ,that includes me as well :-)So your design should use 200# -220# for
the design criteria. Good luck.

See ya

Chuck S

Hey Chuck,

I've seen those around. There are two or three at Kitty Hawk.
Guess I'll go visit and see how they fly!

Richard

Richard Lamb wrote:
ChuckSlusarczyk wrote:

In article . net,
Richard Lamb
says...

Just as a friendly challenge to anyone foolish enough...

Design an airplane within the 254 pound weight limit.

Clean sheet of paper.
254 pounds empty weight.
Your choice of engines, design, materials.

Where would you start?



I for one have done it www.cgsaviation.com/hawkultra.htm and so have
others.Mine not also meets the 254 # but the stall speed and top speed
criteria
set by the feds in part 103-7. Although I don't think this is the
style of plane
the original questioner had in mind. Weight is relative and on this
end of the
spectrum alum sheet gets heavy as a build material.Especially if it's
over .020.

The Hummel plane is all alum and can carry a 200# guy has a fairly
good sized
wing, so it's not a rocket at landing.But it still tips the scales at
almost
300# empty.

It's an interesting challenge something us Ultralight guys have had to
work with
for about 25 years. One thing I did was to not design to the 170# FAA
pilot
since most pilots I know and and those I see at airshows haven't been
170# since
8th grade ,that includes me as well :-)So your design should use 200#
-220# for
the design criteria. Good luck.

See ya
Chuck S

Hey Chuck,

I've seen those around. There are two or three at Kitty Hawk.
Guess I'll go visit and see how they fly!

Richard


There's a volcanolgist in Iceland that has been flying one over some
pretty dangerous ground for for the past few years. By all accounts it
a good plane but he but have titanium balls to fly any ultralight over a
volcano...