About McMullan Aircraft Design

In the late 1990's, I was working for Amoco Oil Company in an oil refinery. I enjoyed my job but working rotating 12 hour shifts, doing the same thing day in and day out (night in and night out) got rather boring. My brain wasn't working like it once had. I had designed my own flying model airplane from an early age and my father had suggested I design a real airplane at some point. I finally decided it was time to design a full scale aircraft.

Since real people would be flying in a real airplane, it was imperative that I learn all I could about aerodynamics and aircraft design so that any full scale aircraft I would design would be safe. Over the next couple of years, I bought several EXPENSIVE books on aerodynamics and I spent countless hours at the University of Utah's Marriott Library studying many books about aerodynamics. Many of those books were from the World War II era and before. After the war, much of the study went to supersonic jet aircraft. The results of all that research and study brought out the Vortex Magnum and the JayBird and the book and associated computer program, "Preliminary Design; Modern Aircraft Design for the Non-Engineer."

I learned how to use an inexpensive CAD program. I believe it was called Sketchup. I also made a spreadsheet to go along with "Preliminary Design; Modern Aircraft Design for the Non-Engineer." I also found that aircraft design is 98% math! All of the calculations exist with a domino effect. If you change one thing, you have to go back and change everything. For this reason, I developed the spreadsheet that comes with the book.

This is the first airplane I designed. The Vortex Magnum is a four place, cantilever high wing, high performance airplane. The Vortex was designed to seat four normal sized adults comfortably plus baggage. Cruise speeds are around 220 mph and a ballistic recovery parachutte is used for safety. The fuselage is steel tubing with composite panels and cowl. The wing is all composite. The engine is a Chevrolet LS-1 (350hp) with a prop speed reduction unit (PSRU).