Airplane Design Merit Badge History

1948 requirements

1. Using rough diagrams or photos, point out how full-size planes are designed differently for five quite different jobs, such as training, airline transport, seaplanes, flying boats and fighters.
2. Measure the outlines of five modern planes and record how much they vary in the ratio of wingspan to wing width (aspect ratio), and in wing area compared with tail area.
3. With rough sketches, show how the curve of a wing (camber) differs for high lift and for high speed, and why.
4. Find the approximate center of gravity of a flying model and explain why a low center of gravity helps stability, and tell what a balanced model would do in flight if longer, heavier wings were put on at the same points.
5. With rough sketches, show why dihedral, swept-back wings and high wings help make a model stable.
6. Build, test and report on two flying models of about the same size but very different design, using the same motor and propeller. A Scout could build one and compare it with a friend's.
7. Make rough scale drawings of the two test models and point out how their designs differ.
8. Fly one or more of your own models in a competition of at least four planes.
9. Measure four of the competition models and give the counselor their flight records, wing shapes and design ratios, such as wingspan to wing width, wingspan to propeller size and wing loading.

Source: Handbook for Boys (1948), summarized