Experience

Aircraft Designs, Inc. (ADI) has helped hundreds of people and companies to develop successful aircraft and we would like to help you. We work fast and our pricing is affordable. We have designed high performance, fixed wing aircraft, seaplanes, aerobatic aircraft, helicopters, gyroplanes, compound helicopters, convertiplanes, air-cars, remotely piloted aircraft, and large cargo airships.

ADI is owned by Martin Hollmann who has over 38 years of experience designing, analyzing, and building large and small aerospace structures.

The RANS S-7 Courier has been FAA certified in the Primary Category. ADI performed the flutter analysis. For more info about this great aircraft designed by Randy Schlitter see www.rans.com.

The loads and stress report for an Supplemental Type Certificate for slats for the Goddard Lift Kit for the Pawnee and Piper Cub have been accepted by the FAA.

The MX missile canister, the world’s largest filament wound graphite/epoxy structure was conceived and designed by Martin Hollmann at Westinghouse. Here it is shown being removed from its aluminum mandrel at Hercules in Utah. Six were built.The success of this structure led to the fabrication of the shuttle booster motor cases.
  The RangeR is a two place sport aircraft powered by a 100 hp diesel engine and was built by Evert Cornet and his team at the Dutch Aeroplane Co. VOF in the Netherlands. The all composite RangeR was designed by Martin Hollmann
  These are the Stallion and the KIS aircraft on their way to Sun’N Fun, Florida. Parts for all three aircraft were fabricated by C.I. Composites. In the background is Richard Trickel and Martin Hollmann.
  The Condor built by ADI in 1981 was a two place, powered sailplane made out of composite materials and powered by a Revmaster 2100 cc VW engine. Here it is shown piloted by Dave Morss. Wing area was 130 sq.ft. and climb rate was 1,000 fpm. While taking off at night, the engine stopped and the aircraft glided into a hill. The aircraft was totally destroyed.
   

 

The Acro 1 was designed by Fred Meyers and ADI. This is a real fun, sport aircraft designed for aerobatics as well as good cruise performance.
The stress analysis of the Kitfox was performed by ADI. The picture shows the fuselage frame when loaded.

A list of Aircraft Designs projects:

  • Proposed, conceived, and designed the all graphite MX-missile canister. Six were successfully built. This technology led to the development of the all graphite shuttle booster for the Air Force.
  • Proposed and designed the world’s first composite armored personnel carrier. This vehicle has been successfully evaluated by the Marines at Camp Pendleton. Based on its success, two Bradley vehicles were built using the same construction methods.
  • Designed the Star*Kraft 700 six passenger aircraft with a gross weight of 9,000 lbs and a cruise speed of 420 mph. First flown in 1994.
  • Analysis and structural design of the Lancair series of aircraft including the Lancair IV and ES. The Lancair IV is one of the world’s most popular, high performance, four place aircraft.
  • Designed, built, market, and fly the Super Stallion. It is the worlds most efficient, high performance, six place aircraft. ADI fabricates and sells kits.
  • Analysis of the Kitfox wing and airframe for Denney Aerocraft, Inc.
  • Designed, built, flew, and marketed the Sportster and Bumble Bee gyroplanes. 100s of these aircraft have been built and flown.
  • Preliminary design of the Legend.
  • Preliminary and final structural design and analysis of the Thunder Mustang.
  • Concepted and designed the center section of the Advanced Strategic Cruise Missile. Selected Inconel 718 for structure.
  • Other aircraft designs include the Condor, Lockheed RPV, and a small gyroplane for Israel Aircraft Industries. Designed and built the rotor system for the IAI gyroplane.
  • Stress analysis for Prowler, Trio, KIS, KIS Cruiser, Seawind, Giles G-200, Acro 1, Geoduck, and Adventurer (post crash.)
  • Complete flutter analysis of the Lancair IV, Lancair 320, Lancair 360 with big tail and small tail, Lancair ES, Star*Kraft 700, Sadler Vampire, Cygnet glider, Killdeer, Cessna C-337 with STC’d extended wing tips, Rigel AA300, Thunder Mustang, Wheeler Express (post crash), BD-10 Jet (post crash), Mach Buster, Super Stallion, Adventurer (post crash), and RotorJet.
  • Work with the FAA as a DER and certify aircraft structures, specializing in Design, Analysis, Flutter, Alterations and Repair, PMAs.

We believe in testing the structures which we work on and have designed. Below are sandbag tests of some of them. Can you recognize that aircraft?
From l to r: Lancair IV wing , Giles 200 wing, Lancair 200 wing , RangeR wing, C337 wing, Stallion frame.

 

 

 

  Our satisfied customers include: California Microwave, Inc., Neico Aviation, Inc., Hughes Aircraft, NASA, Beechcraft, Du Pont, Task Research, Westfoil International, Denney Aircraft Corporation, De Vore Aviation, Watkins-Johnson Company, Universal Studios, Westinghouse Electric Corp., Kaiser Electronics, Inc.,  Dutch Aeroplane Co., AirScan, Inc.