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The MOASI design is more of an evolutionary process than a completely original design.
The basic airframe design comes from Marvin Bernard's Flying Squirrel design which has been radically modified to meet my personnel requirements. The original Squirrel design is great, but I realized that I couldn't fit my 6' 1", 220 pound butt into it.
So, the first thing I did was to increase the complete airframe by about 25%. The Squirrel is 24" wide while the MOASI is 30" wide. I'm 24" wide at the shoulders and just wouldn't fit. If I were to do it over, I would probably make it 28".
I would recommend that you take a look at Oscar Zuniga's website at: http://www.geocities.com/taildrags/ to see his construction photos of the Squirrel. If you want to work in foam and fiberglass, buy a set of Marvin's plans, look at Oscars modifications and get with it.
Since I have a bad back, (military injury) I needed to raise the seating and provide some leg room for a gimpy old man to get in and out of the aircraft. During this process I redesigned the cabin to allow for more room.
I also wanted to build the cabin without using any jigs. I wanted to be able to build the airframe on any flat surface using only a framing square, 3/8" variable speed drill and hand tools. I designed the wood structure to with interlocking wood joints. Using glue and wood screws, I built mine on the floor.
