Airplane design.

Stuart Grey wrote:

Aircraft design seems to be an iterative process.....
Chicken and egg thing. For this reason, they use regression analysis
of existing working designs.

Correct. This is a good thing, if you know what you're doing, because
it lets you easily determine what a new airplane is going to look like,
weigh, etc. On the other hand, you never get breakthroughs by using
this method, since whatever you design will be very similar to what's
come before.

I have found, since I started working at Scaled last September, that we
use a mix of "do it just like that" and "don't do it anything like
that", depending upon need :-).

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2006

"Marc J. Zeitlin" wrote

I have found, since I started working at Scaled last September, that we
use a mix of "do it just like that" and "don't do it anything like that",
depending upon need :-).
\
Cool stuff going on at Scaled; I would love to be qualified, and to get a
chance to work there.

I know you have posted what you do there, but I have forgotten. What is it,
again, if you would?

That philosophy you posted above, about says it all, huh? g
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

I know you have posted what you do there, but I have forgotten.
What is it, again, if you would?

I don't think that I have - maybe you're confusing me with someone else,
but I don't know who that might be - Scaled is not a big place :-).

I'm a mechanical/aeronautical engineer. I design stuff. Sometimes I
build it, too, and test it :-).

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2006

On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 06:08:14 GMT, "Marc J. Zeitlin"
wrote:

Morgans wrote:

I know you have posted what you do there, but I have forgotten.
What is it, again, if you would?

I don't think that I have - maybe you're confusing me with someone else,
but I don't know who that might be - Scaled is not a big place :-).

I'm a mechanical/aeronautical engineer. I design stuff. Sometimes I
build it, too, and test it :-).

mark is the isolation of the mojave desert one of rutan's best aids to
invention?
if he worked in the bustle of LA, for instance, do you think he'd be
anywhere near as innovative or productive?

me, I just love working in my workshop without any television in
earshot.

Stealth Pilot

Stealth Pilot wrote:

mark is the isolation of the mojave desert one of rutan's best aids to
invention?

That's an interesting question. I hadn't thought about it. To tell you
the truth, I don't think so - he does a lot of traveling; there are
always folks coming in for visits, and I think that he's one of those
guys that would be productive/inventive locked in a box on the top of
Mt. Everest, or stuck in the middle of Manhattan. And while Mojave is
small, I wouldn't call it isolated (and I say that as someone that grew
up in NY and lived in Boston for 30 years).

if he worked in the bustle of LA, for instance, do you think he'd be
anywhere near as innovative or productive?

Yeah. I don't think it would matter :-).

me, I just love working in my workshop without any television in
earshot.

Agreed, although when I was building my Q2, I had the radio on full
blast all the time, either rock or news. However, building the COZY, I
liked it quiet.

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2006

"Stealth Pilot" wrote in message
...

mark is the isolation of the mojave desert one of rutan's best aids to
invention?
if he worked in the bustle of LA, for instance, do you think he'd be
anywhere near as innovative or productive?

me, I just love working in my workshop without any television in
earshot.

Stealth Pilot

When Burt was working at Micky D at Lambert Field in St. Louis he was still
creative. I recall he mounted a large scale model of one of his designs,
the VariViggen I believe, on the hood of an old beater car and drove it at
appropriate speeds up and down the runway at the airport in St. Charles, Mo,
to do his wind tunnel work! I thought that was pretty darned creative!

Highflyer
Highflight Aviation Services
Pinckneyville Airport ( PJY )

PS: The Pinckneyville Flyin is coming up, May 19, 20, and 21. Time to
start planning. Let Mary know you are coming at or there
may not be any food for you! :-)

"Marc J. Zeitlin" wrote in message ...

I don't think that I have - maybe you're confusing me with someone else, but I don't know who that might be - Scaled
is not a big place :-).

I'm a mechanical/aeronautical engineer. I design stuff. Sometimes I build it, too, and test it :-).

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2006


Stuff is cool, unless superheated, then it is steam?

--
Dan DeVillers
http://www.ameritech.net/users/ddevillers/start.html


..

I don't think that I have - maybe you're confusing me with someone else,
but I don't know who that might be - Scaled is not a big place :-).

I'm a mechanical/aeronautical engineer. I design stuff. Sometimes I
build it, too, and test it :-).

Cool! What projects have you had a hand in? Some of the "big" ones?

I love all the innovation that has come out of Scaled. Being close to White
Knight and Space One definitely will go down on the list of things that will
stay with me for a long time.

I am not a mechanical engineer, but had I gotten a better start with math
while in Jr. High and High School, I might have been one. I was in the "new
math" debacle. My dad was a M.E., and he taught me many things of the
mechanical world. I like nothing better than getting an idea, coming up
with a solution, then building the device, or system, or whatever, and
seeing it work, as I pictured it in my mind's eye. I would like nothing
better than designing and building my own plane, but I'm a bit away from
seeing that happen.
--
Jim in NC

On Thu, 2 Feb 2006 19:20:18 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:


I don't think that I have - maybe you're confusing me with someone else,
but I don't know who that might be - Scaled is not a big place :-).

I'm a mechanical/aeronautical engineer. I design stuff. Sometimes I
build it, too, and test it :-).

Cool! What projects have you had a hand in? Some of the "big" ones?

I love all the innovation that has come out of Scaled. Being close to White
Knight and Space One definitely will go down on the list of things that will
stay with me for a long time.

I am not a mechanical engineer, but had I gotten a better start with math
while in Jr. High and High School, I might have been one. I was in the "new
math" debacle. My dad was a M.E., and he taught me many things of the
mechanical world. I like nothing better than getting an idea, coming up
with a solution, then building the device, or system, or whatever, and
seeing it work, as I pictured it in my mind's eye. I would like nothing
better than designing and building my own plane, but I'm a bit away from
seeing that happen.

Jim you are only limited by your self doubt. I admit it is hard to
find decent aero engineering references that are understandable but
keep trying. we'll both get there one day.

Stealth Pilot

"Stealth Pilot" wrote

I admit it is hard to
find decent aero engineering references that are understandable but
keep trying. we'll both get there one day.
\
Of that, I have no doubt. g
--
Jim in NC