Basics of R/C Model Aircraft Design: Practical Techniques for Building Better Models (Paperback)

by Andy Lennon (Author) "The vertical line, on the left, provides the C1, positive above and negative below the horizontal line..." (more)
Key Phrases: model aircraft design, tail download, hump trim, Snowy Owl, Model Airplane News, Construction Designs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A comprehensive guide to designing radio control model airplanes. Andy Lennon presents a thorough and comprehensive introduction to the intriguing world of model aerodynamics. Whatever your modeling background, this book will be a valuable reference source in your R/C library and will never be outdated. Fully illustrated.

Product Details

• Paperback: 135 pages
• Publisher: Air Age (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911295402
• ISBN-13: 978-0911295405
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 7.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,569 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide to the Intermediate or Advanced designer!, April 14, 1999

By	Gopi Rajaseharan (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an excellent, time-tested guide to designing radio controlled model aircraft. Mr.Lennon explains everything in a confident and crisp tone. But most people just starting out in designing might find this book a little intimidating owing to the large number of math-like graphs and formulas right from page one. But if you are willing to persevere in your interest to design extremely reliable R/C modelled aircrafts then you should definitely read this book/guide. Thanks.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good designers guide, November 3, 1999

By	Siniša Despotovi (Zagreb, Croatia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is very good R/C airplane designers guide. However, covering so many topics it could use some more pages and better organisation (the graphs are small and scattered trough the book in disorganized manner making them difficult to follow while reading explanations). Looking forward to next edition!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Crammed with disjoint information yet informative., January 2, 2004

By	"coltranian" (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Though overall a very useful book, this book seems to be a somewhat disjoint conglomeration of various articles about aircraft design that perhaps were once published in a magazine. There is no soft introduction for the beginner - be prepared to be inundated with a slew of graphs, equations and very dense writing that will demand some qualitative understanding of basic aerodynamics. (I would personally recomment _Understanding Flight_ by David Anderson and Scott Eberhardt, which is not very mathematical and quite easy to understand for a novice like myself.) The fact that these disjoint chapters don't flow together is a bit annoying, but on the other hand it is quite pleasant to have such a wide array of specific information in such a portable book. The section on reading airfoil charts is terse and yet intelligible. Be warned: if you're not familiar with the basics, you might get lost quickly and have to reference another text, as did I. If you're just a little dusty, however, there will be a very short review. (For example: how is angle of attack different than incidence, and how do these two things relate to both cambered and symmetrical airfoils? What causes a pitching moment?)

There is some discussion about exotic designs (three airfoil, canard, tailless and delta-wing, NASA safe wing, float design, etc.) although without much in-depth discussion about theory (for example, the NASA Safe Wing chapter described mostly about the history, advantages and characteristics of this device but very little about the theory or even implementation in a new design.) The author clearly tried to cover a lot of topics in a small amount of space, thus I would rate it more vast than in-depth.

Overall a good book with many examples (mostly from the author's own designs). Very useful, with an appendix of characteristics for the airfoils and models used in examples.