Flying on Your Own Wings: A Complete Guide to Understanding Light Airplane Design

This book is addressed to those who are interested in building their own experimental full-size aircraft, and not being aeronautical engineers. It includes graphics and an explanation for all parts of the airplane, plus a full review of Math and building materials and how their profiles affect its resistance to different forces they will be facing in an aircraft. A good book to have handy.

I bought this book shortly after I bought one of Chris Heintz airplanes, an already built example of his first kit design actually, the Zenair Zenith which was later named the CH-200, which was a quite popular two-seat, plans built airplane offered by Chris' company, (Zenair Aircraft Company) from the mid-seventies till the very early '90's. The CH-200 is the ancestor to all the other Zenair and most of the current Zenith models.The book starts with discussion of basic engineering and physics principles and evolves into a rather thorough explaination of almost all the various areas of light aircraft design and development, from the propeller to the rudder. All through the book there are little snippets of Chris' personal thoughts on subjects aeronautical as well as (sometimes) philosophical. Whether those non-aeronautical things should actually be there might be argued but I liked them because they gave me a better understanding of the kind of man who designed the airplane I bought. It also explained some of the reasons of why the CH-200 was designed the way it was and is.Chris Heintz appears to be a talented, generous and genuinely nice guy and that comes out in the book. The pages sometimes brush only the surface and other times, they go into more than enough detail but always they are an interesting read, although to really understand it all you will need a decent background in mathematics, or at least be willing to learn to understand it since the book is chock full of formulas and other math related data. It might be a little intimidating for the casual reader but, if you really want to get an "understanding of light airplane design", this is what you need to read to get it.I liked the book and it was not only a good read, it also doubles as reference material.For anyone who owns, flys (or is currently building) a Zenair or Zenith airplane, this book should be required reading.

This book starts with an introduction by and of Chris Heintz, who is well-known in experimental aircraft circles for designing a variety of successful homebuilt aircraft. This introduction serves you well as an introduction to the man, which will come in handy later as you read the book (I'll explain--read on...) The book reads as a primer of the light aircraft design process from start to finish, with chapter one starting off with basic mathematics. I mean *really* basic, like roman numerals, the greek letters, etc. You quickly realize this is not going to be your typical aircraft design book. It then moves on to aerodynamics, stability and control, flutter, structural design analysis, human factors, design and performance estimates, and ends with how to flight-test a prototype aircraft.The book dives from general concept to detailed analysis and back to general concept pretty much at-will. It looks and reads more like a large collection of lecture notes and chalkboard analysis, with an occasional personal philosophy thrown in. And not just aircraft design philosophies; for example, pg. 53 has this paragraph after the discussion of gravity: "Note: although the gravitational pull of the planets does not affect aircraft design, its action on the life forces (plants, animals, humans) and soul forces (animals and humans) is not much recognized in our western culture. Some cultures are much more attuned to this..." Like I said, read the introduction lest you mistake Mr. Heintz for your standard conservative engineering type :-)Personal philosophies aside, I did find this book easy and enjoyable to read. The math/physics introduction at the start seems overly long, but it really does cover in a very nutshell form all the various concepts you should be aware of before designing an aircraft (even compound interest calculations for those who need to borrow money from the bank to finance their dream! Probably not a good idea, but I digress...) You would want to back up all the calculations here with the much more detailed and dense volumes like Bruhn's handbook etc, but as an overall checklist of how to design a light aircraft it really is quite comprehensive. The only reason I give it four stars, not five, is the number of typos that appear throughout, like "Load ditribution" as a section title on pg. 133. It gives one a little less confidence in the equations, but again, you'd be wise to double (triple) cross-check them against other references anyway. This is a book along the lines of  Simplified Aircraft Design for Homebuilders  and not an engineering textbook. Approach it as such, and it's a great read.

This book includes a fascinating story of Chris Heinz progressing through the aircraft industry and then founding his own company to design and build light aircraft, but it is a primarily a very detailed and thorough primer on how a light plane is designed and the factors and calculations that go into a successful design. Most amateur builders today work from kits, but if you are going to verify the calculations provided by the kit supplier or make your own modification this is a good reference. Caution: there will be math.

Dans la littérature aéronautique on trouve des livres de vulgarisation qui survolent les sujets et des livres de spécialistes destinés aux spécialistes, mais très peu d'ouvrages qui s'adressent aux constructeurs amateurs avec suffisamment d'informations accessibles pour être utiles."Flying on your own wings" est de ces rares livres réellement utiles. Il est juste un peu dommage que Chris Heintz ait préfèré l'ancien système d'unités métrique au système international qui est enseigné depuis presque un demi-siècle. Heureusement, les explications sont suffisamment claires pour éviter les erreurs d'interprétations.

There's a lot of technical information in this book on designing your own aircraft with a lot of mathematics explained. I had hoped there would be more information on the actual designing of Chris Heinz's famous aircraft. Chris is in my opinion, a genius in aviation design and a very interesting chapter is given to his life story. If you want to design an aircraft from scratch this is the book for you as opposed to assembling a kit such as the Zenair Ch 701.

Dass dieses Paperback schon in der dritten Ausgabe erscheint spricht für den Autor, einen der bekanntesten Leichtflugzeugbauer weltweit. Dieses Buch animiert einen selbst ein Flugzeug zu entwerfen oder zu bauen. Man versteht das Warum, Weshalb und Wieso! Sehr empfehlenswert für den Amateur

Very good book, thanks author to share his experience, is a summary of many books and a guide to give a way on project.

I have to "CH" planes. Enjoyed the book.