Has anyone seen a tool that can design custom RC airplanes from requirements?

[Realmdyz]

​

Hi everyone,

I've been wondering if there is already a platform or software that lets you create a custom RC airplane simply by describing your requirements.

For example:

• Trainer vs aerobatic vs glider
• Desired wingspan
• Payload requirements
• Skill level
• Preferred materials (foam board, balsa, 3D printed, etc.)

And then automatically provides things like:

• Airframe dimensions
• Recommended electronics
• Build plans or CAD files
• Parts list

I know there are many great resources, plans, simulators, and communities out there, but I haven't personally found a tool that connects the whole workflow from idea → design → build.

Does something like this already exist?

I'd love to hear what tools, websites, or workflows you currently use when designing your own aircraft.

Thanks!

 

[Houndpup Rc]

​

Hi everyone,

I've been wondering if there is already a platform or software that lets you create a custom RC airplane simply by describing your requirements.

For example:

• Trainer vs aerobatic vs glider
• Desired wingspan
• Payload requirements
• Skill level
• Preferred materials (foam board, balsa, 3D printed, etc.)

And then automatically provides things like:

• Airframe dimensions
• Recommended electronics
• Build plans or CAD files
• Parts list

I know there are many great resources, plans, simulators, and communities out there, but I haven't personally found a tool that connects the whole workflow from idea → design → build.

Does something like this already exist?

I'd love to hear what tools, websites, or workflows you currently use when designing your own aircraft.

Thanks!

I have looked into this in the past, and so far it doesn't seem like AI ect is there yet...

 

[The Hangar]

The closest to what you’re describing would be to ask AI, but if you ask AI to do airplane pictures, you’ll often end up with something pretty funky that won’t work in real life. My recommendation is look at some aviation magazines or websites, find a plane you like that fits the style you’re looking for, then look for plans. Aerofred has lots of free plans for balsa planes, and with a bit of work you can adapt those for foamboard. If you find a full scale plane you like, often you can get a 3 view online, and from there you can layout the parts in a program such as Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape (free) and design it yourself. Be prepared to spend a good deal of time, but that’s part of the fun!

 

[Realmdyz]

I have looked into this in the past, and so far it doesn't seem like AI ect is there yet...

Thanks for your answer but !!
Is there a platform that specifically does even part of these things?
For example, if there are several separate platforms, they can be used together and have a complete output. For example, one platform tells the size, one gives the engine type, one gives the CAD file, and so on.
Are there such platforms separately?

 

[Realmdyz]

The closest to what you’re describing would be to ask AI, but if you ask AI to do airplane pictures, you’ll often end up with something pretty funky that won’t work in real life. My recommendation is look at some aviation magazines or websites, find a plane you like that fits the style you’re looking for, then look for plans. Aerofred has lots of free plans for balsa planes, and with a bit of work you can adapt those for foamboard. If you find a full scale plane you like, often you can get a 3 view online, and from there you can layout the parts in a program such as Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape (free) and design it yourself. Be prepared to spend a good deal of time, but that’s part of the fun!

Thanks, that's helpful. I completely agree that the fun part is the building and iteration process.

What I'm really curious about is whether people are currently stitching together multiple tools to achieve this workflow.

For example:

A tool for initial sizing or performance estimates
A tool for motor/prop selection
A tool for airfoil selection
CAD software for modeling
Sources for plans
Simulators for validation

Are there specific tools or websites you personally combine when starting a new design from scratch?

I'm not necessarily looking for a single "magic button" solution — I'm interested in understanding the current workflow people actually use.

 

[AIRFORGE]

What is your end goal here?

 

[telnar1236]

Thanks, that's helpful. I completely agree that the fun part is the building and iteration process.

What I'm really curious about is whether people are currently stitching together multiple tools to achieve this workflow.

For example:

A tool for initial sizing or performance estimates
A tool for motor/prop selection
A tool for airfoil selection
CAD software for modeling
Sources for plans
Simulators for validation

Are there specific tools or websites you personally combine when starting a new design from scratch?

I'm not necessarily looking for a single "magic button" solution — I'm interested in understanding the current workflow people actually use.

Depends on what you're looking to get out of it - if you want something where outputs from one tool flow fairly seamlessly into another, honestly, the technology isn't really there yet. As The Hangar said, the easiest option is to look at what's been done before and try and get ballpark with that. Building and flying a couple foam board planes from plans is the best way to get a sense of what does and doesn't work

This isn't to discourage you from using tools, just to say that they aren't necessary and make life more difficult, not easier a lot of the time. All these tools do exist in some form, but the issue is the gaps between them and knowing what to do with the outputs. It's probably harder to design with the tools than just to design based on what has been proven to work. An example workflow could be:

1. Initial sizing: There are a number of websites out there with tables or calculators to recommend wing loading and power - this is a good starting point: https://rcplanes.online/design.htm
   You won't be able to calculate performance with any degree of accuracy without a huge amount of work and even then it's still just an estimate till the plane flies
2. A tool for motor/prop selection: Again, this requires calibration to be at all accurate, but here's a tool that gives an estimate for static thrust: https://rcplanes.online/calc_thrust.htm
   You also need some experience to know how much thrust/power you actually need for your airplane to fly well. You can go from the power calculator in the first link to here somewhat
3. A tool for airfoil selection: http://airfoiltools.com/
   For RC planes, you can get away with something like a kf step airfoil a lot of the time, but you can optimize a lot too if you want to. There is no such thing as a best airfoil, even in a specific application. Give 10 designers a task and they'll create 10 different wings for it.Generally you want a high max lift coefficient, low drag coefficient, high stall AOA, and low pitching moment coefficient. In general, for a conventional plane (not a flying wing or delta), the Clark Y airfoil is a good choice for the wing
4. CAD software: There are a bunch of them and all have a fairly steep learning curve. I use Fusion 360 and a lot of people on the forums here like Onshape, both of which have free options. Devcad is a paid software but if you're design balsa planes, it makes it a lot easier. However, it's still on you to convert what you got from steps 1-3 into CAD no matter what software you use
5. Create plans: Again, a pretty steep learning curve here. 3D printed planes are by the easiest for this step since slicers are very well refined at this point, but you pay for the ease of going from CAD to a part with added difficulty everywhere else in the design process. If you just want plans in general, Aerofred is great as others have mentioned
6. Simulation tools: The best simulation tool is a profile chuck glider - it will give you more and more usable information than most CFD
   This a rabbit hole not worth going down unless you want to turn it into a whole second hobby (I say this as someone who uses CFD to help me design RC planes). XFLR5 is the most user friendly simulation tool out there. If you want a tool that lets you fly the plane on your computer you will then need to create a separate model in a flight simulator based on the outputs but there's a very low chance that you'll end up with a plane that flies particularly like the real one

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Thanks for your answer but !!
Is there a platform that specifically does even part of these things?
For example, if there are several separate platforms, they can be used together and have a complete output. For example, one platform tells the size, one gives the engine type, one gives the CAD file, and so on.
Are there such platforms separately?

Yeah, I mean I will use ChatGPT for "Blueprints" sometimes like with this plane here:

But as you can see my versioned up quite a bit different, as there were a lot of things I didn't like in the other one and the plane was different in almost every picture! (As well as not being scale) I mainly will use ChatGPT for best way with how to do something in CAD, conversions of measurements or weights ect.
As far as a program that will do 3D modeling Zoo 3D KINDA tries to do it but its is nowhere near good enough! (Basically blocks shaped in the form of an airplane...Literally!😂😂)

At this point, I think technology is just not there yet, and most aircraft are invented... Like, take a cup, you have a basic idea behind it: something you can put liquid in and have a handle on it. You can change its shape while fulfilling the same purpose. With an aircraft, on the other hand, engineers are always finding better ways to do something, and there are soooo many aspects that an AI 3D modeler would have to try to take into consideration compared to more simple stuff like motors, PC fans, etc.

Another thing is that AI programs research the info they need to design it... And I can't tell you how many times I have gone and downloaded blueprints for an airplane I want to design, and the top, side, and front views aren't all the right size or are out of proportion. Would AI be able to detect that? (I kinda think not, at least atthis point!😂)

IDK, maybe in the future someone will make an AI thing made specifically for designing airframes! We shall see! 😂😂

So yeah, nothing really will do the actully 3D modeling part yet, but if you have a project in mind I might be able to do it for you!

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Thanks, that's helpful. I completely agree that the fun part is the building and iteration process.

What I'm really curious about is whether people are currently stitching together multiple tools to achieve this workflow.

For example:

A tool for initial sizing or performance estimates
A tool for motor/prop selection
A tool for airfoil selection
CAD software for modeling
Sources for plans
Simulators for validation

Are there specific tools or websites you personally combine when starting a new design from scratch?

I'm not necessarily looking for a single "magic button" solution — I'm interested in understanding the current workflow people actually use.

So usually what I do is either go online and look for some blueprints for the plane I want to make, or get ChatGPT to give me a base starting point, but keeping in mind with that that I will have to judge the CG location, etc.

After that, I bring them into Onshape and scale them to the right size for my plane and start the process of sketching out the profiles and extruding or lofting between them.

After that, I use the flatten feature and export them as .SVG files and bring them into Inkscape, where I can place them on my paper plans, color the lines, make small edits, etc.

With this workflow, it can take me about 5 hours for a simple plane or a few days for something more complex.

 

[Bearcat]

Yeah I think your best bet currently is using AI to give you overall advice and numbers but as far as CAD goes you kinda just have to learn it and do it yourself for now. You'd be surprised how rewarding it is to design your own plane and see it in real life. As far as your main question goes, AI can give you very good numbers for size, prop, motor, batt, ect. I personally follow an order something like this:

Find the airplane I want to design/build

Define the features and rough size I'm going for based on what I want and give them to AI

Ask AI what the best options are for parts and other complicated design choices

Design the Plane in Onshape

Export Parts to Inscape for formatting

Import Inkscape file to Laserweb for cutting or cut out by hand

Houndpup is right, depending on the complexity of the plane you could have a full design done and cut in less than a day once you get into the groove. I have personally just started using AI more, and it really helps take the guesswork out of the more complicated things. I personally use Google Gemini as I have fund that I has less of a tendency to suck up to you and agree with everything you say even if its wrong.

Good Luck

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Houndpup is right, depending on the complexity of the plane you could have a full design done and cut in less than a day once you get into the groove. I have personally just started using AI more, and it really helps take the guesswork out of the more complicated things. I personally use Google Gemini as I have fund that I has less of a tendency to suck up to you and agree with everything you say even if its wrong.

Funny, I find it opposite with Gemini and that ChatGPT will actually "think" about it. If you wanna see which ones is right just have them fact check each other...I have done this and sometimes it gets into quite the argument though usually ChatGPT comes out on top😂😂...Lately Gemini is sooo emotional!🤦‍♂️🤣

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Lately Gemini is sooo emotional!🤦‍♂️🤣

*At least with my account....

 

[Realmdyz]

What is your end goal here?

I'm looking for a platform where I can tell the platform that I want an RC with these specifications and it will give me a 0-100 build path and tell me what to do, where to buy, and...
This is what I want
Do you know anything?

 

[AIRFORGE]

I'm looking for a platform where I can tell the platform that I want an RC with these specifications and it will give me a 0-100 build path and tell me what to do, where to buy, and...
This is what I want
Do you know anything?

I believe the other comments have offered pretty much what I would.

 

[Realmdyz]

Depends on what you're looking to get out of it - if you want something where outputs from one tool flow fairly seamlessly into another, honestly, the technology isn't really there yet. As The Hangar said, the easiest option is to look at what's been done before and try and get ballpark with that. Building and flying a couple foam board planes from plans is the best way to get a sense of what does and doesn't work

This isn't to discourage you from using tools, just to say that they aren't necessary and make life more difficult, not easier a lot of the time. All these tools do exist in some form, but the issue is the gaps between them and knowing what to do with the outputs. It's probably harder to design with the tools than just to design based on what has been proven to work. An example workflow could be:

1. Initial sizing: There are a number of websites out there with tables or calculators to recommend wing loading and power - this is a good starting point: https://rcplanes.online/design.htm
   You won't be able to calculate performance with any degree of accuracy without a huge amount of work and even then it's still just an estimate till the plane flies
2. A tool for motor/prop selection: Again, this requires calibration to be at all accurate, but here's a tool that gives an estimate for static thrust: https://rcplanes.online/calc_thrust.htm
   You also need some experience to know how much thrust/power you actually need for your airplane to fly well. You can go from the power calculator in the first link to here somewhat
3. A tool for airfoil selection: http://airfoiltools.com/
   For RC planes, you can get away with something like a kf step airfoil a lot of the time, but you can optimize a lot too if you want to. There is no such thing as a best airfoil, even in a specific application. Give 10 designers a task and they'll create 10 different wings for it.Generally you want a high max lift coefficient, low drag coefficient, high stall AOA, and low pitching moment coefficient. In general, for a conventional plane (not a flying wing or delta), the Clark Y airfoil is a good choice for the wing
4. CAD software: There are a bunch of them and all have a fairly steep learning curve. I use Fusion 360 and a lot of people on the forums here like Onshape, both of which have free options. Devcad is a paid software but if you're design balsa planes, it makes it a lot easier. However, it's still on you to convert what you got from steps 1-3 into CAD no matter what software you use
5. Create plans: Again, a pretty steep learning curve here. 3D printed planes are by the easiest for this step since slicers are very well refined at this point, but you pay for the ease of going from CAD to a part with added difficulty everywhere else in the design process. If you just want plans in general, Aerofred is great as others have mentioned
6. Simulation tools: The best simulation tool is a profile chuck glider - it will give you more and more usable information than most CFD
   This a rabbit hole not worth going down unless you want to turn it into a whole second hobby (I say this as someone who uses CFD to help me design RC planes). XFLR5 is the most user friendly simulation tool out there. If you want a tool that lets you fly the plane on your computer you will then need to create a separate model in a flight simulator based on the outputs but there's a very low chance that you'll end up with a plane that flies particularly like the real one

Thank you for your complete and comprehensive answers. I really appreciate all the love that you answered me completely. I will definitely use what you said and I am sure that it will help me a lot.
But imagine that you have an AI assistant that you first tell him what you want and he gives you the output you want in full and then at every step you can ask him questions and he is completely with you and answers everything and every problem you have.
I am studying AI at university and I am very interested in ARSI (but I know almost nothing and the large amount of university courses does not allow me to learn). I think it is possible to have something like this and I would really like to find something like this.
Do you know anything like this that does something like this or similar?

 

[Realmdyz]

I believe the other comments have offered pretty much what I would.

Maybe I'm wrong in my question because I haven't found the answer to my question yet

 

[AIRFORGE]

Maybe I'm wrong in my question because I haven't found the answer to my question yet

There is as yet no single tool that can properly design an RC craft.

 

[Realmdyz]

Yeah, I mean I will use ChatGPT for "Blueprints" sometimes like with this plane here:
View attachment 258629
View attachment 258630
But as you can see my versioned up quite a bit different, as there were a lot of things I didn't like in the other one and the plane was different in almost every picture! (As well as not being scale) I mainly will use ChatGPT for best way with how to do something in CAD, conversions of measurements or weights ect.
As far as a program that will do 3D modeling Zoo 3D KINDA tries to do it but its is nowhere near good enough! (Basically blocks shaped in the form of an airplane...Literally!😂😂)

At this point, I think technology is just not there yet, and most aircraft are invented... Like, take a cup, you have a basic idea behind it: something you can put liquid in and have a handle on it. You can change its shape while fulfilling the same purpose. With an aircraft, on the other hand, engineers are always finding better ways to do something, and there are soooo many aspects that an AI 3D modeler would have to try to take into consideration compared to more simple stuff like motors, PC fans, etc.

Another thing is that AI programs research the info they need to design it... And I can't tell you how many times I have gone and downloaded blueprints for an airplane I want to design, and the top, side, and front views aren't all the right size or are out of proportion. Would AI be able to detect that? (I kinda think not, at least atthis point!😂)

IDK, maybe in the future someone will make an AI thing made specifically for designing airframes! We shall see! 😂😂

So yeah, nothing really will do the actully 3D modeling part yet, but if you have a project in mind I might be able to do it for you!

Thanks for the comparison and your answer
That was very helpful, I have some aerospace friends at university and since I am interested in RC myself I will definitely discuss this with them, one of my friends recently passed 6 units of aircraft design and I am studying artificial intelligence myself!
Maybe we can make something useful that will benefit the RC community and ourselves

 

[Realmdyz]

There is as yet no single tool that can properly design an RC craft.

I am studying Artificial Intelligence.
I will discuss this with my aerospace friends
I hope we can build something
If you would like to help us too I would be happy
Thanks for your attention

 

[Realmdyz]

Funny, I find it opposite with Gemini and that ChatGPT will actually "think" about it. If you wanna see which ones is right just have them fact check each other...I have done this and sometimes it gets into quite the argument though usually ChatGPT comes out on top😂😂...Lately Gemini is sooo emotional!🤦‍♂️🤣