Hi Everyone,

Over the past few months a small and dedicated team of people have been working on an open source aircraft project called MakerPlane (www.makerplane.org). This is an open source hardware project with the objective of enabling people to build and fly their own safe, high quality, reasonable cost plane using advanced personal manufacturing equipment such as CNC mills and 3D printers. The plans and instructions will be available for free and in perpetuity. The goal is to have a series of plans that are available for different aircraft types that will be supported by a vibrant community of builders. Our first design in the series is for a 2-seat LSA, the fastest growing area in General Aviation. The overall geometry and look and feel of MakerPlane Version 1.0 (LSA) have been developed, and the project is moving into the next phase. You can see initial renderings of the design on the website.

The MakerPlane project now needs new team members to assist in the completion of the design components and to help us out with the website itself. We have broken the aircraft down into bite-sized chunks and are now looking to complete the detailed design of each major sub-component. The lead designer and recently retired aeronautical engineer, Jeffrey Meyer, will be overseeing the engineering and integration of these components. The aircraft design will be tested and flown prior to the plans being released. Of course we will also be looking for a cool name for the design as well! Please contact us if you are interested and head over to our forum to register and be part of history!

Regards,
John Nicol
MakerPlane