Designing a Flying Wing – Alan Smith

Alan Smith shows us how he uses his skills in racing car aerodynamics to design and build a flying wing

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Club member and professional aerodynamicist Alan Smith gave a captivating talk on how he designed and built his unique flying wings.

Alan, who’s job is designing and working with more earthbound vehicles like racing cars and hydrofoil yachts showed us around the design procedures he applied to building something capable of flight. The talk was an intriguing look at how design works in this field, taking CAD designs into computer simulations such a virtual wind tunnel and onto manufacture using 3d printing.

Alan has worked through several versions of his wing to end up with a design that the club members that have test flown it agree is a very fine flying model.

One of Alan’s earlier and strikingly graceful designs can be seen flying here on Youtube.