How do you begin designing a new aircraft from scratch?

[b-29er]

Here's my strategy:

- find a design i want to fly
-analyze for my skillset. Whats the airfoil like, are there any points that may be structurally deficient scaled down
-go/no-go based on this
-research the design.
-a lot
-start designing. Use GNACA to create the airfoil sections, scale in autocad
>design the rest of the structure based off a pasted together set of russian drawings
>buy electronics to scale to the prop diameter (on electric motors this means overpowered beyond imagination)
>invest in several sheets of 1/2" foam, plywood, several dozen home depot rulers
>Start building
>run short on time and start winging the design
>bring to flite fest, really run out of time to fly it
>give the fuselage a toss, give up and start over when you get home.

And thats how i build aircraft

 

[Hondo76251]

the best laid battle plan never survives first contact!

Good stuff!

 

[TEAJR66]

This is a great article for getting into purposeful designs.

https://www.flitetest.com/articles/easy-aircraft-design

Here are some basics to use when starting out.

https://images.app.goo.gl/HcDjZDQ8oqQNgqnZ9

After I have a good idea of what I am going for, I start with the wing. Then the fuselage. Then the tail feathers.

 

[bracesport]

@datamichael - have a look at onshape.com the free version should have sheet metal functionality - the only downside with the free version is that the files are in the public domain - not really an issue though!

Attached is an image showing an unwrap from within Onshape

also, have a look at freeCAD - its free - not sure if it has any sheet metal functionality for unwrapping.