If you want to own the legally, here are your best bets as of 2026:
You will learn how to calculate stick forces, hinge moments, and trim. The chapter on "Tail Sizing" is particularly famous because it includes spreadsheets for determining the horizontal tail volume coefficient specifically for GA aircraft (which have different CG ranges than jets). general aviation aircraft design snorri gudmundsson pdf
Go to Google Books or Elsevier , buy the official eBook for ~$80, or rent it via an engineering subscription through your university. The ability to search for terms like "V-tail dihedral effect" or "Cessna 172 landing gear loads" in a clean, official PDF is worth every penny. If you want to own the legally, here
Go to Chapter 8 (Airfoil selection). Gudmundsson provides a list of GA-specific airfoils (NACA 63-415, 23012, etc.) and explains how to pick one based on maximum lift coefficient and pitching moment, not just drag. The ability to search for terms like "V-tail
According to reviewer perspectives on Amazon, the book is often compared to Raymer’s Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach and Nicolai’s Fundamentals of Aircraft Design :