Chris Heintz Design College

Aeronautical engineer Chris Heintz, the designer of Zenith Aircraft Company's line of kit aircraft, is one of the most qualified and knowledgeable light aircraft designers today. With prior experience from Aerospatiale, de Havilland, and Avions Robin (France), Heintz has designed and introduced more than 12 successful kit aircraft designs, including the ZENITH CH 2000 design which was put into production as a standard FAA type-certificated production aircraft.

Chris Heintz is now retired, and he has written a book on light aircraft design, titled Flying On Your Own Wings - A Complete Guide To Understanding Light Airplane Design, to share his expertise on light light aircraft design.

"I am an Engineer at the Boeing Co., but I work in electronics. I learned more about general aircraft design from your articles than I have in my 12+ years here."
- Don Nye

Heintz Design College Articles: Aircraft Design and Construction
	Aircraft Design Made Easy First in a series on basic calculations for designing your own light aircraft. Heintz describes a simple method for the preliminary design of a light airplane using just paper, pencil and a $10 calculator.	Design
Article 1	Wood, Aluminum, Steel and Composites... and the Properties of each.	Materials
Article 2	Light Aircraft Construction Materials	Materials
Article 1	The First Flight of Your Aircraft	Flight Test
Article 2	Performance Testing Your Aircraft	Flight Test
Article 1	Riveted Joints (Part 1)	Construction
Article 2	Riveted Joints (Part 2)	Construction
Article 1	Choosing the Design of Your Aircraft	Design
Article 1	Airfoils - Part I	Design
Article 2	Airfoils - Part II	Design
Article 3	Airfoils - Part III	Design
Article 4	Airfoils - Part IV - An Application (STOL)	Design
Article 1	Horizontal Tail: Pitch, Stability And Control	Design
Article 2	Control Of Our Airplane	Design
Article 3	Weight & Balance	Design
Short	Design and Application of the ZODIAC's Hingeless Aileron	Design
Article	Anatomy of a STOL Aircraft: Designing a Modern Short Take-Off and Landing Aircraft	Design

The first 14 articles were published in the Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) Light Plane World or Experimenter publications. Chris Heintz has hinted that he is working on a book on light aircraft design and construction. Let us know what you think of these articles, and tell us what topics you would like to learn more about.

"I teach aerodynamics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The information on your web site is outstanding, and I request permission to use it in my lectures..."
- R. Sam Baty, PhD

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