Basic Design Theory and Aerodynamics behind Flying Wings and Tailless Aircraft (Part 1)

This is a (regretfully short-handed) summary of my notes for one of my recent home projects in which I challenged myself to design, build, test, and fly a flying wing from scratch. The basic design theory in this video covers surface-level stability (excluding stability derivatives), airfoil design, tailless aircraft performance characteristics, and aircraft config/design methods to generate static stability (q, R, L) in the absence of fins or tails. In a future video, I’ll dive into the stability derivates and which are significant or not significant for tailless aircraft, as well as vertical fin design theory, it’s role in stability, and the effects of hedral and gull on the aerodynamic performance of tailless aircraft. There may be small bits of information or nomenclature usages in this video that are incorrect or used improperly - if you catch any, please comment and let me know so I can learn from this. The whole reason I pursued this design and test challenge was to learn anyways! *The green text at 10 47 should say NACA0010, NOT MH61* 0:00 Intro 1:29 Tailless Aircraft Overview 4:38 Aerodynamic Introductory Topics 5:24 Longitudinal Stability Calculus Fundamentals 9:48 Overcoming instability in a wing 11:44 Downsides of Reflex 12:17 Effects of Twist 15:30 Lift Distributions 17:53 Proverse Yaw 19:05 Taper Ratio My twist spreadsheet: Some sources: