I frequently receive questions from university students.  These questions always include some specific technical details, but not nearly enough to accomplish any particular goal, hence the need to ask the question.  Here are some examples of the type of questions I receive.

• What is the best power source for an airframe with a gross takeoff weight of 10 kg?
• How much fuel does it take to fly a 5 kg airplane for 40 minutes?
• What is the best landing gear design for a 10 kg airplane?
• How much weight can a plane carry, with a wingspan of 2 meters and a chord of .25 meter?
• What propeller should I use on a plane with a 2 meter wingspan and a 10cc engine?

I can spot engineering student questions a mile away (1.60934 km).  There is always a specific design goal stated in metric units, coupled with a complete lack of knowledge about model aircraft (and everything else), followed by an expectation of finding answers through online research rather than by actually building something.  The other dead giveaway is that the questioner always claims to be “designing an airplane” but never admits to being a student.

Don’t worry, university students.  I’m not mad at you.  As kids who were raised by day care workers and touch screen electronic devices, or whatever they do in your home country, you can hardly be expected to do any better than to ask a toy airplane enthusiast for help with your homework.  Your worthless professors certainly aren’t going to do you any good.  Since you have come to me for your education, I’ll go ahead and educate you:  You are being scammed.  Someone is paying a ton of money for you to get a degree that is supposed to qualify you to design planes for Boeing, but your professor is just sending you on a scavenger hunt.  Meanwhile, a bunch of hobbyists are telling you how to build the plane because we think it’s fun.

In fact, hobbyists have amassed an enormous wealth of engineering data since the 1930s.  This information is found mostly in old magazines, internet forums, and the accumulated knowledge of a bunch of guys with glue on their fingers.  I find it appalling that the faculty members at the engineering schools do not care to compile such knowledge into tables and charts that can be used for school construction projects.  If such charts existed, they would serve as a training aid to familiarize students with real engineering procedure.  Professional engineers consult existing data to obtain the actual numerical values pertaining to various design features and structural members.  That’s how it’s done in the real world.  The fact that engineering schools still do not have such data tables for model aircraft is an indication of the quality of your schooling.  I don’t know how these six figure salaried buffoons can sleep at night.

The most disturbing aspect of this situation is that the students I hear from don’t appear to be the type of people who have inherent mechanical abilities.  They are not really asking me for engineering help.  In fact, they are asking for a shopping list, because all they really want to do is order a bunch of stuff and put it together.  That’s the way school projects are done, even if you don’t know it yet.

At this point I’m sure you’re probably saying “OK, I get it.  You’re right.  It’s a scam.  Now tell me what propeller to use on a 10cc engine on a 2 meter plane so I can place an order at xtreemhobbymegawarehouse.com before the end of the semester” because the only design goal is to get a passing grade.  This brings us to the real problem, which is that you aren’t really learning how to design, test, and modify an aircraft, and repeat this process until success is attained, because there isn’t enough time in the semester to use trial and error to learn anything useful.   If you ever learn any real engineering, it will be learned on the job (if you get one).  Based on my inbox, I am convinced that the average engineering student can’t engineer his way out of a wet paper bag, and isn’t likely to learn how in school, and frankly I hope they don’t ever get jobs.

As long as I’m giving you good career advice, maybe you should learn to fly model planes, spend a few decades building them, and then compile all of the engineering data that you learn into tables for future students.  Lobby the engineering schools to get your book onto the required reading list, and you’ll make a fortune at $100 per copy.  Then at least your worthless professor and his TA with the unintelligible accent will have basic data to start with, which is how real engineers do it.

If you are a smart engineering student with good professors, good for you.  The students I usually hear from are a bunch of bozos who want me to do their homework.  If you want to talk about toy airplanes, I’d love to talk.  That’s why I made this website.  But we’re not in school, so don’t expect to get a number that you can write on a test.