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

[Realmdyz]

It will definitely get to the point of being able to do good engineering eventually - just likely a few years out. Probably will be a bit out of the price range of your average RC hobbyist with the compute power required for another few years after that. Part of the challenge is that designing an RC plane requires doing just the right amount of bad engineering to get it to work and involves a lot of intuition and hands-on know-how. I probably take one of the more rigorous engineering approaches to designing planes on this forum and if I took my design process into an actual engineering environment I would be

1. Told to seek help because doing CFD without getting paid for it is not normal
2. Laughed out of the room if I tried to present most of my process as good engineering - real engineering is exceptionally rigorous because it needs to be to keep people safe but that also makes it very time-intensive and expensive and that is likely the market that AI companies will initially target

That's a really interesting way of putting it—"just the right amount of bad engineering." I think I know what you mean.

It sounds like a lot of successful RC design comes from experience, intuition, and rules of thumb rather than trying to optimize everything mathematically??

 

[Gadeirus]

It sounds like a lot of successful RC design comes from experience, intuition, and rules of thumb rather than trying to optimize everything mathematically??

Personally I would likely agree with that. I think the only realm of RC aircraft where proper optimization really occurs is high-end sailplanes.

For everything else, it really doesn't matter all that much. With RC airplanes, it is so incredibly easy to make something really strong and with stupendous power-to-weight ratios that all other considerations that you would take in a full-scale airplane design really just get pushed aside. For instance that's why so many model airplanes use what are, honestly, not particularly great airfoils. It just doesn't matter.

 

[telnar1236]

That's a really interesting way of putting it—"just the right amount of bad engineering." I think I know what you mean.

It sounds like a lot of successful RC design comes from experience, intuition, and rules of thumb rather than trying to optimize everything mathematically??

Pretty much, you can use engineering to optimize anything, but the majority of RC designers don't want to. Like Gadeirus said, you see it some in gliders, and I'd also add higher end pylon racers to that list - those got really competitive for a while and you got things like the MH laminar flow airfoils out of that - but in general there's no need - chuck a Clark Y airfoil on it, put the CG at 20% MAC, and go have fun.

 

[L Edge]

Another way to look at designing these days is that prop planes and foam, you just slap your wings on your fuse, add some tail feathers, slap some motor's/prop's anywhere on it and it flies. Agree like others.

Now add 3D printing and combo's of foam planes can go faster and "mucho" scaling is done easily. Basically the same planes and a few new ones. So the tool for design is not really needed.

Now enter EDF's which in actuality, changes the picture. This is the problem child of the RC family. They are under powered and will need to follow rules and regimentation. Some success and rules have been established for dealing with 1 EDF in some aircraft, even there, some fail to fly in the total flight environment. (Example, F-22 with stealth design added at EDF exhaust, will produce pitch up condition and in tight turn will spiral down and out of control lacking rudder).
How many 2 EDF's planes fly, the list is very few? Problems galore for the NYGAD F-47, 4 that I know off and no data or design is available yet. Get the idea. @Realmdyz

So, that is where research projects, experimenting, experience, mathematics, and specialist and of course, luck, are needed to find the answers. (Even better, if you had an RC skunkworks)

Like other sports, there are always "special interest groups" that are interested in advancing and perhaps the "tool" gets added and built within the future AI.