What is Plane Geometry?
Plane Geometry from Envision Design (CA), is a design tool for aeromodellers. The user enters various dimensions of the model, and the system calculates geometric and stability coefficients. The system supports an iterative design process, so you can adjust your design incrementally until you achieve the desired flight behaviour. The software shows the model’s appearance as a perspective view. The system can be used for any conventional or V-tail model, both glider and powered. Plane Geometry helps to answer questions like • how big should the tailplane be • what is the effect on stability of moving the centre of gravity • what should the geometric incidence for the wing be etc. What doesn’t it do? Well, it doesn’t deal directly with strictly aerodynamic issues such as L/D ratios or optimal CG position. In order to see how useful it is in practice, I did a case study using my own Flying Tackle design. More on this later. First, a more detailed description of the software… System requ
