Barnaby Wainfan
Barnaby is a Technical Fellow for Northrop Grumman’s Advanced Design organization. A private pilot with single-engine and glider ratings, Barnaby has been involved in the design of unconventional airplanes including canards, joined wings, flying wings and some too strange to fall into any known category.
Wind Tunnel
While two-control airplanes were designed to make a pilot’s life simpler, they come with significant compromises.
Wind Tunnel
Certain situations and configurations just call out for a ducted-fan installation. Barnaby Wainfan explains the benefits and drawbacks.
Wind Tunnel
Seemingly inconsequential alterations—even mounting an inflight camera on the airframe—can result in big changes to an aircraft’s handling and performance.
Wind Tunnel
Builders are often in a rush to prove the airworthiness of their homebuilt projects, but thorough flight-testing is essential.
Wind Tunnel
Taxi testing may seem to be a mere formality, but it is a vital step toward bringing a new aircraft to flight, and is not without its dangers.
Wind Tunnel
Taking off in an aircraft would seem to be a fairly simple, straightforward maneuver. But in fact it’s complicated, and a combination of factors must be just right for it to work.
Wind Tunnel
Learn how wingtip vortices are generated and how wake turbulence can affect your aircraft.
The STOL Equation
Barnaby Wainfan explains the challenges designers face in creating viable STOL aircraft.
Wind Tunnel
The way lift is distributed along a wing's span affects both the structure and its aerodynamics.
Understanding and Avoiding Spins
A pilots ability to recover from a spin depends just as much on the design characteristics of the airplane as on stick-and-rudder skills.
In Case You Missed It
Oil Pressure Problems
Oil pressure is always a concern to anyone who flies a powered plane. Everyone...
Product Review: Garmin GMA 240
Garmins latest com offering is a streamlined audio panel/intercom that doesn't do everything, but what it does-nav/com, music, muting and pilot isolate-it does exceptionally well. By Marc Cook.
