Design
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I would be the first person to put my hand in the air and admit that design is not my forte. some people have an innovative flair for new concepts and ideas, some don't. A lack of originality has not stopped me from designing and building my own planes, it just means I am influenced by other peoples ideas to a greater or lesser degree, emulation being the greatest form of flattery.
Emulate-to imitate (some-one) in an attempt to do as well as or better than him or her.
So that is not to copy, but be influenced by another design or designs, absorb the concept and come up with your own version, that's about the best I can hope for.
In the book "R C slope soaring" by Dave Hughes, there is a chapter by Chris Foss called, "Creative soaring design." This is a good inspirational read, and got me started with a sketch book, pencil and a rubber, doing some rough designs/doodles, and over a period of time has proved quite interesting to look back on, though some planes in there look like they might have been drawn by a three year old! Why is it so hard?
In its basic form a traditional airframe is a wing to provide lift, a fin and a stabilizer for pitch and yaw stability, control surfaces to provide steering direction and a fuselage to hold all the parts together and accommodate radio gear while maintaining some kind of aerodynamic shape. The better a design manages to do this, the better its Function, give it some nice sweeping curves, appealing plan shape.....make it look fast, desirable and aesthetically pleasing, this gives it Form.
In a nutshell, that's how I see a good design, a combination of form and function, sounds simple, but the more you look into the subject, the more complicated it becomes, keep it at the level you are comfortable with, then build up your knowledge gradually, thus improving with each new design makes sense to me, and that is how I approach it. Aerofoil lift/drag buckets and re numbers are my current stumbling block.
Tools
Profilli is the tool I use for plotting aerofoil data, it lets you print out templates for cutting foam wings and tail feathers, you can modify wing sections or create new ones then import them into your cad drawing package for further messing. There is also the option of analyzing graphs of aerofoil polars at different re numbers, flap deflections and angle of attack ect, it does more stuff than I can get my head around, so plenty to grow into, yet is very easy to use. you can try it for free, but for just a few £ you get an unlocked version that does everything you could want, with some helpful back up should you need it.
CAD software is fantastic. There are lots of free cad programs here to try out. I went for TurbCAD LE, on recommendation from lots of people in RC Groups. It is easier to use if you are used to a windows type interface, and comes with some very good tutorials, if you are new to CAD I would strongly recommend it. Took me about 3 weeks of evenings to work my way through it, and gave me a good insight into what programs like this can do, and hey...its free. From there I bought TurboCAD 10.5 pro as I was interested in 3d rendering my models....hm...then bought an instructional e-book on how to use it from these guys. Guess I now need to spend another few weeks of evenings getting to grips with drawing in 3d, will be neat once I can do it though. A quick to learn and easy to use 3D package specifically for designing RC planes is also worth a look. only tried the free version but it is fun to mess about with, purchasing the product allows you to save your designs, but you can design in 3d and print out 2d plans on the free version as long as you don't try to save anything. Not much use for anything but planes though. Rhino 3D is another highly rated product, free to try for 10 saves with no time limit so worth a look if you are keen on 3d design, not spent much time on it myself as its a bit out of my price range. I understand Autocad is the Rolls-Royce of CAD packages, but its not cheap.
Isiplot a new CAD program from the designer of profili looks quite interesting. Several tutorials to watch so definitely worth looking at. There is a large glider plan library to go with this program also, which has got to make it much more appealing.
You could use a pencil, ruler and a bendy piece of curtain rail, tape some decorators lining paper down to the bench and away you go, its what I used to do. For making composite airframes you only need a basic outline shape and an idea of the cross section, much easier than all those ribs and capping strips, fuselage formers ply doublers and planking, so any plans you have for a conventional balsa and ply build can easily be used for a composite plane.
Plans
The Jart Reed Sherman's almost perfect combination of form and function.
Aerodesign under the model section there is a huge range of drawings, lots of the current euro moldies in planform, and lots of flying wings.
CRRC lots of plans for discus and winch launch planes, plus many interesting articles on designing and building.
AZ some epp racing and combat wing plans, along with wing coordinates.
PSS large collection of 3 view drawings for military and civilian aircraft. You can import these drawings into Turbocad, trace round them and then scale them up and modify them to your hearts content. It probably works the same for other CAD software.
On the wing lots of info on flying wings, plans and software to help you design them.
Andy MacDonald's flying wing page more cool flying wings
Laird's Demon downloadable plans on posts 32 &33
RC Groups free slope soaring plans thread
Madslide downloadable plans of a 3d slope acrobat on post 4
Plans Index page (French site)
If you know of any links to free plans, let me know and I will post them here.
This site was last updated 03/21/07