Aircraft Design and the LAA Magazine

Discussion of aircraft design, new designs and designing your own

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Bill McCarthy
Posts: 488
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:06 pm
Location: Caithness

Post by Bill McCarthy » Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:26 am

I quite often refer to an experimental aircraft website which is quite useful for design and materials sections. If you google "pilotfriend.com" it should take you there.

Charles Scott
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 9:17 pm

Post by Charles Scott » Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:01 pm

Nick Allen wrote: I'm not sure that's the only business model that works. Take your Thatcher, for example: Thatcher has sold to date 454 sets of plans @ $360 apiece = $163,440. That's really not bad -- he could have afforded a stress engineer out of that! :D
Even with the volumes that the Thatcher designs have sold, there is barely enough income to call this a full time job, let alone pay for a stress engineer or make an actual profit. He's made that money over 7 years so that's $23,350 a year. He's now in his late 70's so he was probably already financially sound and not relying on the income to feed the family.

Selling plans is probably a good way to supplement a pension, but even at US volumes it looks like a "get poor quick" scheme rather than a viable business model.

Rob Swain
Posts: 393
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:11 pm

Post by Rob Swain » Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:41 pm

Charles Scott wrote:He's made that money over 7 years so that's $23,350 a year.
Point taken about not being a good basis for a business but it's a fantastic return on a hobby!
Rob Swain
If the good Lord had intended man to fly, He would have given him more money.

Hamish Mead
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:27 am
Location: Ledbury, Herefordshire

The Corby Starlet and Kestrel - Design background

Post by Hamish Mead » Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:45 pm

I just discovered an interesting article written by John Corby, designer of the CJ-1 Starlet and CM-2 Kestrel. It was published in SAANZ's magazine, Sport Flying earlier this year. It would be great to see it reprinted in Light Aviation for the benefit of a wider audience.

In the meantime you can download a pdf version of it from the SAANZ website here:
The Corby Starlet and Kestrel - Design background - by John Corby - Sport Flying Autumn 2011

Enjoy!

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