The Mission Weight Estimator gives you a realistic target flying weight before you size anything else, based on your airplane’s class and intended mission — the anchor every wing and balance decision depends on.
Pick a mission and enter wingspan to get a realistic flying-weight range.
Why start with weight
Every design decision that follows, wing area, wing loading, tail volume, is sized against a weight. Guess that weight and every downstream number inherits the guess. This tool replaces the guess with a range grounded in how planes at your span and mission are actually built.
How the estimate is built
The model is fit to real submitted build data, not a rule of thumb. Trainer, Sport, and Acrobatic each have their own curve relating wingspan to flying weight, because the three missions carry weight differently at the same span, a 1500mm trainer and a 1500mm acrobatic plane are not built to the same structural or wing-loading targets.
If your wingspan falls outside the span range a mission’s curve was fitted on, the estimate blends toward the broader trend across all missions and widens its range accordingly. You’ll see this flagged with a ~, it’s still a usable starting point, just a softer one, since it’s leaning partly on data outside the mission’s own build history.
What the range means
The output is a range, not a single number, because “flying weight” absorbs a lot of build philosophy covering material, servo count, battery sizing, structural margin. Where your finished weight lands inside that range is a build decision, not a design flaw either way.
Next step
Continue to Wing Area and Wing Loading to define wing surface and wing loading coherently against this weight target.
RC Plane Designer evolves as chapters are refined and connected.
The project began as a personal notebook used while designing scratch-built RC airplanes.
If you are learning from it or building with it, your feedback helps shape what comes next.
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