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You have to do what the regulations require -- either as stated in the FAR, or you can propose and defend something else that gives equivalent safety. It is not uncommon for rules to change with weight. 6000 lb is one of the classic break points, although the rationale for it is a little...

TurboCad is an extraordinarily productive tool for the price. I have used TurboCad to do things that AutoCad and even CATIA won't do (and vice-versa, I'm sure) Look at IMSI's web page for TurboCADCAM V2: http://www.imsisoft.com/prodinfo.asp?t=1&mcid=152 It isn't clear what version of TurboCAD...

The Mitsubishi Diamond / Beechjet has noticeable buffeting when its spoilers are deployed. In analyzing the effect of control deflections, there are both force and moment effects to consider. With ailerons, there is an increase of lift on one wing and a decrease in lift on the other. These two...

My experience is that aluminum sheet bought by the pound is at the upper range of the tolerance, and aluminum sheet bought by the square foot is at the lower range of tolerance. Structural analysts should always consider both the low and high tolerances in their stress and stiffness calculations.

Usually the boss likes one configuration or another. The design always starts there. I remember a light twin design where the President of the company wanted the tail to look like the tail on the F-5. We just about never got that to work right. The tail's vertical placement is a tradeoff...

1. There is a market need today for an engine that burns widely available jet fuel instead of aviation gasoline, which is already unavailable in large parts of the world and is very costly. 2. Very small engines are, indeed, difficult to design; and derating an existing engine leads to...

Wil, When did you get back to Eng-Tips? The guys would love to hear from you on the "mental challenge" thread you started last year. So sorry about your mother. Welcome back. Miper

IRstuff, I agree with your assessment of the tiles. I wondered from the first day I read about them why anyone would use such a complex, expensive, error prone scheme for heat shielding. The use of an advanced ablative coating was also considered in the shuttle design, and I am not sure why...

On-purpose engines of the type you mention are being seriously considered and preliminary designs are complete. Their efficiency rivals the latest piston/propeller engines, and their weights are considerably less. Several designs were presented in a forum at the recent EAA convention in...

IRstuff, Yes, I'm aware of your points. Still, the costs, slow orbiter redeployment, and accident history indicate that the shuttle concept may not have been the best solution for supporting orbital activities, given the state of technology in the early 1970s when it was selected over...

As noisy as jet transports are today, they are much quieter than those produced forty years ago. Engineers have added inlet treatment, bypass fans, and exhaust mixers; and have refined inlet designs and fan blade details in order to substantially reduce noise. For engines designed at the same...

The idea of flying a spacecraft as if it were an airplane might be fundamentally flawed. All the other issues (wings, wing tiles, wheels, wheel wells, shirtsleeve cabin environment during re-entry....) are complexities emanating from this single feature. The Apollo and Soyuz designs, while...

I have cut threads into a steel rod, starting with a hand held hack saw to make an angled groove, and then following the initial groove with a thread chaser of the type GregLocock mentions. It took over an hour, and the accuracy was merely passable; but the nut went on and stayed on. (This was...

It is unlikely that many airplanes can withstand a commanded full rudder reversal at maximum sideslip. The loads in this condition are enormous and well beyond the design requirement. The rudder is usually the most powerful control on an airplane (the B-52 is a possible exception, it has a...

You can figure the gross flow rate per minute requirement for a 4-stroke engine as (1.3liter) x (8000rpm)/ 2 You can refine this a bit by multiplying by a typical volumetric efficiency for your type of installation. You might be able to find design guidelines for NACA ducts on the NACA report...

If an engineering school in the USA can show that its students meet certain standards, then that school is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Roughly 330 schools in the USA now have this accreditation. Many companies consider an engineering or...

dosenbro, Most Engineers get fairly specialized, usually because they work in a specialized industry. They, too, worry that they couldn't do other engineering work if their company or industry went away. It's a similar problem to yours. Your concern about becoming a stale engineer after...

bystrik, The following references should get you started. By the way, you will note in these references (which include the FAA, seaplane developers in the USA and UK, and numerous researchers) that they all associate the words “seaplane” and “hull” without any sense of embarrassment and hardly...

I remember the chief engineer bringing chickens in from his farm for the bird tests. Originally, they were shot live to get a real result, but the ASPCA raised a ruckus; so we started wringing their necks, which gave us the opportunity to weigh them, trim as necessary to the appropriate weight...

David, A few observations that may be helpful: An undesirable business is one that is bogged down by regulation (aerospace, banking, utilities, etc.) one which has only one or a very few customers (government contractors, airliner manufacturers, etc.), one that has been around more than about...