Winfoil Overview

Windows Shareware for Model Aircraft Design

This page was last updated on Sunday, 2 January 2000

Overview

Winfoil is a an aeronautical computer aided design tool for designing, analysing and modifying model aircraft. It also provides the ability to print the design (wing ribs, fuselage sides, wing and tail plans) to any Windows supported printer and export design components to DXF files for import into other CAD programs such as AutoCAD. It is typically used for Radio Control Gliders, Powered Aircraft (Scale,Sport and Pylon). Winfoil is Shareware. This enables the user to try the product before buying it. Registered users receive one free upgrade to the next major release. Minor updates are available free from this web site.

Winfoil has been developed using a state of the art RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool (Microsoft Visual Basic) and utilises the Microsoft Access Database engine to store design data and airfoil coordinate data. The data can be accessed using any number of available third party database query tools permitting the user to manipulate the data or use the data in other Windows applications. There are also no restrictive limits on the number of coordinates or designs as the limit is based on available disk space and computer resources.

Winfoil is under constant development and at least one new feature is added each week. The author holds a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and is an active R/C power pilot flying both IC and Electric aircraft.

The latest version of Winfoil 2.2 provides the following features;

Rib View. See spar layout, wing skin and interpolated rib shape. Set skin thickness for each rib.
Set wing/tail sweep angle.
Compare Airfoil characteristics.
NACA airfoil generator (4,5 and 6 Digit) - generate any number of coordinates for an airfoil.
Windows 95 style user interface (works in win 3.1, 3.11, NT) - tab windows,dockable toolbars, explorer style screens. All screens are fully resizable regardless of screen resolution.
Improved calculation speed - Automatic database rollback recovery in the event of program crashes.
Aircraft performance calculation - power required, L/D, min sink speed, max speed, stall speed, performance graphs. Analyze different configurations and optimise for performance.
Design simple fuselage components
Eppler Airfoil Coordinate Format support - select the format which suits you NACA or Eppler
Improved import and export - export performance calculations to Excel spreadsheets for further analysis
DXF wing plan (outline, spar and rib layout) and fuselage export - quickly generate shapes with the Wing Wizard then export to a CAD program.
Record design specifications
Store pictures of designs and comments - keep a record of your design for reference
Create design groups (group fuselage components, wing, tail surfaces, specifications)
Improved airfoil cad screen. Overlay airfoils, enter cordinates.
Add own component types (fuselage formers etc) - add an unlimited number of components, add new drag items for performance calculations.
Estimate airfoil pitching moment - for flying wing designs.
Program saves last accessed airfoil, design and all screen sizes so that the layout is restored the next time Winfoil is run
Multi user database - share single database over a network with multiple users. Excellent feature for Schools and Universities. Have one common shared data source for all your data.

Screen Shots

	Airfoil List Screen displays airfoil profileand lists lift coefficent, drag coefficient, pitching coefficient, thickness and camber. Comments can also be stored for each airfoil.

	View Airfoil Polars, Lift/Drag curves and maintain lift,drag and pitching moment data. Compare Airfoil characteristics.

	Airfoil CAD screen for manipulating airfoil coordinates. Overlay other airfoils, manipulate coordinates with a mouse or enter coordinates from the keyboard. Delete, add or modify coordinates. Change camber , thickness or mirror surfaces. Estimate pitching moment coefficient.

	Supports Eppler and NACA format airfoil coordinates. Add any number of coordinates and enter maximum lift coefficient, minimum drag coefficient and maximum pitching moment coefficient.

	NACA Wizard generates coordinates for 4, 5 and 6 digit airfoils.

	Create Design specifications, wing components and fuselage components. Store pictures of designs and enter comments to document a design.

	Estimate aircraft performance, create drag breakdown. Supports imperial and metric units. Optimise design for best performance or analyse an existing design.

	Look up drag coefficients for wing, tail and fuselage sections from airfoil database and drag coefficient database.

	Design Cad screen is provided to quickly design a wing,tail or fuselage.Rib View screen is provided for wing and tail components. Spar layouts are shown on both the wing plan and rib views. Views are updated dynamically whenever the design is changed. Wing area, aspect ratio and mean aerodynamic chord is calculated automatically. Supports different airfoils at the root and tip for wing and tail components.

	View wing and tail components in 3D. Rendered, wire mesh and solid mesh views are provided. Component can be rotated in all three dimensions. This feature will be further enhanced in a later release.