Intro to Airfoil-Maker
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X-Plane uses aircraft designed with Plane-Maker. In other words, you can use Airfoil-Maker to enter the airfoil characteristics of any airfoil, and then use those airfoils on your aircraft in Plane-Maker and X-Plane. Remember, an AIRFOIL is NOT a wing! A WING has wingspan, size, is made of metal or some other material, and is usually attached to an airplane! An AIRFOIL is simply a mathematical CROSS SECTION used to define the wing! Any airplane from a small Cessna to a giant Boeing could in theory use the same AIRFOIL, the Boeing would just use that mathematical cross-section on a much larger wing! In Airfoil-Maker, you define the AIRFOIL, which is simply a cross-section of a wing, and this airfoil may be used without restriction on any of your airplanes that you design in Plane-Maker. If you decide to make custom airfoils for your airplane, make a folder called "AIRFOILS" in the same folder as the your ACF file, and save the foils you make in Part-Maker in there. This is needed for X-Plane to find them. |
Now, X-Plane comes with a bunch of airfoils, including at least
one for every reasonable use... Therefore it is probable that, for recreational purposes,
these will be the only airfoils you will ever need! In other words, there are enough
airfoils included with X-Plane that you will probably never have to design your own
if you are just flying and designing for fun. Airfoil-Maker is available to you, however, if want to input your own airfoils for your own aircraft designs because your airplane uses airfoils that were not included with the simulator. NOTE: AIRFOILS ARE STORED IN THE "AIRFOILS" FOLDER WITHIN THE "RESOURCES" FOLDER... GET YOUR AIRFOILS FROM THERE TO LOOK AT EXISTING AIRFOILS. |
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