Design Study for an Ugly Bird
- Thread starter Ivan
- Start date
Templates in CFS
Here are the Template Parts thrown together with a few changes in the Simulator.
So far, the time spent on this project is around 6 evenings:
Two to Create the Reference Drawings.
Two to mark the Important Dimensions. (This is kind of an ongoing task because I keep finding more things that need measured.)
One to create the Basic Template Parts.
One to create a couple Components and to put everything into an Assembly for AF99.
This project is pretty easy so far because the Ju 87B has a lot of flat surfaces and straight edges.
- Ivan.
Here are the Template Parts thrown together with a few changes in the Simulator.
So far, the time spent on this project is around 6 evenings:
Two to Create the Reference Drawings.
Two to mark the Important Dimensions. (This is kind of an ongoing task because I keep finding more things that need measured.)
One to create the Basic Template Parts.
One to create a couple Components and to put everything into an Assembly for AF99.
This project is pretty easy so far because the Ju 87B has a lot of flat surfaces and straight edges.
- Ivan.
hubbabubba
Charter Member
Junkers Ju 87B-2
Believe it or not, those templates that were used to form the 2D model determine quite a lot of how the aeroplane will fit together. That is why it is fairly important to throw the Pieces together early to make sure the general shape is as expected.
There are a couple things that may not be obvious at first glance. Note that the Oil Cooler exhaust on top of the cowl doesn't quite line up with the back side of the Radiator Flaps. They probably will in the final model. The difference between actual locations (drawing) and model locations is around 1.5 inches.
The reason I chose to check out the B model is because the drawings I had were so good. The Front View lines up to within 0.02 feet over 45 feet. The Side view is of similar quality but the Top View is not, so some of the dimensions depending on the Top view are a best guess. I figured I would see how hard it would be to build this Ugly Bird.
Performance-wise, there isn't all that much difference between the B model and the D model though the D has much better load carrying capacity.
As stated before, this is just a Design Study. No commitments regarding completion.
- Ivan.
Believe it or not, those templates that were used to form the 2D model determine quite a lot of how the aeroplane will fit together. That is why it is fairly important to throw the Pieces together early to make sure the general shape is as expected.
There are a couple things that may not be obvious at first glance. Note that the Oil Cooler exhaust on top of the cowl doesn't quite line up with the back side of the Radiator Flaps. They probably will in the final model. The difference between actual locations (drawing) and model locations is around 1.5 inches.
The reason I chose to check out the B model is because the drawings I had were so good. The Front View lines up to within 0.02 feet over 45 feet. The Side view is of similar quality but the Top View is not, so some of the dimensions depending on the Top view are a best guess. I figured I would see how hard it would be to build this Ugly Bird.
Performance-wise, there isn't all that much difference between the B model and the D model though the D has much better load carrying capacity.
As stated before, this is just a Design Study. No commitments regarding completion.
- Ivan.
3D Wings
I spent not quite an hour this morning to locate the Templates for the Wing Stations at the Wing Bend, Wing Outter Joint, and the Wing Tip. The angles of incidence were already set by the WingL Template which is why it took so long to create. As I stated before, there is a LOT of information in what appears to be a simple wing outline.
The Wing Stations were all formed by Magnifying (Reducing) the Wing Root Station Airfoil to have the same Chord as the particular Wing Station. It took another couple hours to adjust Airfoil Shapes at each station.
An additional point was added to the Wing Tip to make it smoother. After that, it is just a matter of connecting the dots to get a 3D Wing.
I left work about an hour early today because I wanted to avoid road closings due to the President's speech and local flooding due to Tropical Storm Lee. To make up for that extra time, I cooked dinner while we still had light so that if there was a power hit, we would still have dinner ready. I figure that including the time from this morning, To get to this stage took around 4 hours or so including the time to arrange some Screenshots. The point is that a lot of the build process is perhaps a bit tedious, but really pretty easy.
Oh.... Almost forgot. I also spent some time this evening rebuilding the Propeller. The Chord of each Blade is now wider, an extra point was added to each side and the Blade Pitch was changed from 25 Degrees to 30 Degrees. I also started working on the cross sections around the Radiator.
Good Night.
- Ivan.
I spent not quite an hour this morning to locate the Templates for the Wing Stations at the Wing Bend, Wing Outter Joint, and the Wing Tip. The angles of incidence were already set by the WingL Template which is why it took so long to create. As I stated before, there is a LOT of information in what appears to be a simple wing outline.
The Wing Stations were all formed by Magnifying (Reducing) the Wing Root Station Airfoil to have the same Chord as the particular Wing Station. It took another couple hours to adjust Airfoil Shapes at each station.
An additional point was added to the Wing Tip to make it smoother. After that, it is just a matter of connecting the dots to get a 3D Wing.
I left work about an hour early today because I wanted to avoid road closings due to the President's speech and local flooding due to Tropical Storm Lee. To make up for that extra time, I cooked dinner while we still had light so that if there was a power hit, we would still have dinner ready. I figure that including the time from this morning, To get to this stage took around 4 hours or so including the time to arrange some Screenshots. The point is that a lot of the build process is perhaps a bit tedious, but really pretty easy.
Oh.... Almost forgot. I also spent some time this evening rebuilding the Propeller. The Chord of each Blade is now wider, an extra point was added to each side and the Blade Pitch was changed from 25 Degrees to 30 Degrees. I also started working on the cross sections around the Radiator.
Good Night.
- Ivan.
Canopy Frame Completed
This is the rest of the Canopy Frame. There are places that will still need to be adjusted when the body panels are installed. Creating the Canopy Glass is pretty much trivial at this point. Unfortunately I am also up to 340 Parts of 1200 which is much more than I would have figured it would take to get here.
With just about every aircraft project, there is an interesting discovery at one point or another. With the Ju 87B-2 Stuka, the strange thing that I found is that the wing has nearly the same ratio of thickness from root to tip (15%). The exception is the slight increase in chord at the hardpoints at the outter wing. Perhaps the drawings are not correct, but they DO seem to match photographs.
- Ivan.
This is the rest of the Canopy Frame. There are places that will still need to be adjusted when the body panels are installed. Creating the Canopy Glass is pretty much trivial at this point. Unfortunately I am also up to 340 Parts of 1200 which is much more than I would have figured it would take to get here.
With just about every aircraft project, there is an interesting discovery at one point or another. With the Ju 87B-2 Stuka, the strange thing that I found is that the wing has nearly the same ratio of thickness from root to tip (15%). The exception is the slight increase in chord at the hardpoints at the outter wing. Perhaps the drawings are not correct, but they DO seem to match photographs.
- Ivan.
A couple minor errors are shown in the last couple Screenshots.
The chord of the propeller is too narrow. The actual thing was somewhere around 15 to 18 inches wide. The drawing indicates 1.25 feet but that is probably a projection with some amount of blade pitch. Photographs show a VERY wide propeller blade.
The Ring for the Swivel MG is about half as thick as it should be.
The actual length of the aircraft should be 11.00 meters, but my guess put it at 11.10 meters.
The form of the nose section has had me trying at least 3 or 4 times to figure a way to represent it properly. My drawings thus far just don't look right.
- Ivan.
The chord of the propeller is too narrow. The actual thing was somewhere around 15 to 18 inches wide. The drawing indicates 1.25 feet but that is probably a projection with some amount of blade pitch. Photographs show a VERY wide propeller blade.
The Ring for the Swivel MG is about half as thick as it should be.
The actual length of the aircraft should be 11.00 meters, but my guess put it at 11.10 meters.
The form of the nose section has had me trying at least 3 or 4 times to figure a way to represent it properly. My drawings thus far just don't look right.
- Ivan.
Sleek and Smooth
Did anyone ever expect those words said of a Junkers Ju 87? Well, I kept looking over the outline and photographs and what I noticed is that the shape of the nose is actually quite smooth and sharp....
....as long as you ignore all the holes, scoops and bumps that grew off it. I decided to follow all the stream lines off the propeller spinner and see where they would end up. After a few hours of bending things here and moving things there, this is the result. It doesn't look like much yet, but quite a few things are located by these lines.
- Ivan.
Did anyone ever expect those words said of a Junkers Ju 87? Well, I kept looking over the outline and photographs and what I noticed is that the shape of the nose is actually quite smooth and sharp....
....as long as you ignore all the holes, scoops and bumps that grew off it. I decided to follow all the stream lines off the propeller spinner and see where they would end up. After a few hours of bending things here and moving things there, this is the result. It doesn't look like much yet, but quite a few things are located by these lines.
- Ivan.
Junkers Ju 87 Schturmovich
Hi No Dice,
That is actually a pretty good thought. Perhaps there is a reason why they all look alike. In comparing with the prior profile shot, you can tell there really isn't much that is not entirely in line with the original drawing.
The mechanics of putting this thing together aren't tough, but there are LOTS of curves in the nose area and the tail that I need to approximate with straight lines. WHERE on a curve do you put the vertex for a straight line?
- Ivan.
Hi No Dice,
That is actually a pretty good thought. Perhaps there is a reason why they all look alike. In comparing with the prior profile shot, you can tell there really isn't much that is not entirely in line with the original drawing.
The mechanics of putting this thing together aren't tough, but there are LOTS of curves in the nose area and the tail that I need to approximate with straight lines. WHERE on a curve do you put the vertex for a straight line?
- Ivan.
Just started on the Wheel Fairings. Note that only the Outboard sections are done. The Inboard sections will be almost identical, but I want to create them in an automated fashion, so looks like I need to do some more programming.
Note also the addition of sides to the Oil Cooler Intake area.
Actually I don't think these Wheel Fairings are all that Ugly, but so far it is probably the only part of the aeroplane that isn't.
- Ivan.
Note also the addition of sides to the Oil Cooler Intake area.
Actually I don't think these Wheel Fairings are all that Ugly, but so far it is probably the only part of the aeroplane that isn't.
- Ivan.
Basically, All I did was to build the Left Outter side of the Wheel Fairing. A directory listing of the parts into MS Excel allows me to duplicate the listing and modify to new file names by hand. After inserting a "Mirror" command (I wrote a C Program to Mirror a Part from one side to the other), the result is saved as a batch file and run.
I then put all the new parts into a new component which is a throwaway called X1. I also have a program called CMoveIt which does pretty much what you would expect. Since the centerline of the landing gear is offset 4.92 feet (3 Meters), I move the Component -9.84 feet Left. The result is that all the Inner Wheel Fairing Parts are created. This process probably took around 5 minutes to do.
No, the Wheel Fairings are still not done. There is no underside and also the Tires need to be cut down to fit under the Wheel Fairings, but that is fairly trivial.
Total Parts count up to this point is around 770 of 800 (1200) allowed.
- Ivan.
I then put all the new parts into a new component which is a throwaway called X1. I also have a program called CMoveIt which does pretty much what you would expect. Since the centerline of the landing gear is offset 4.92 feet (3 Meters), I move the Component -9.84 feet Left. The result is that all the Inner Wheel Fairing Parts are created. This process probably took around 5 minutes to do.
No, the Wheel Fairings are still not done. There is no underside and also the Tires need to be cut down to fit under the Wheel Fairings, but that is fairly trivial.
Total Parts count up to this point is around 770 of 800 (1200) allowed.
- Ivan.
Ailerons
Parts Count is slightly off. 770 was with just one Wheel Fairing. With both fairings and Ailerons and Outboard Flaps, count is 820.
Component Count is 21 Currently with an estimate of 30 at completion. (They pretty much always end up at 30, but the big question is whether or not I can get both a Pilot and Gunner into the Aeroplane without exceeding 30 Components. Each figure costs 2 Component and roughly 50 Parts.)
- Ivan.
Parts Count is slightly off. 770 was with just one Wheel Fairing. With both fairings and Ailerons and Outboard Flaps, count is 820.
Component Count is 21 Currently with an estimate of 30 at completion. (They pretty much always end up at 30, but the big question is whether or not I can get both a Pilot and Gunner into the Aeroplane without exceeding 30 Components. Each figure costs 2 Component and roughly 50 Parts.)
- Ivan.
Component Count
The current Component count is 21. I believe these remaining Pieces will need to be build with Components:
Supercharger Intake
Pilot Head
Pilot Body
Gunner Head
Gunner Body
Cockpit Fuselage Section
Control Panel Deck Area
Canopy Frame Side
Canopy frame Front
I hope there aren't any more Components needed than the ones listed here....
Otherwise things get much more complicated.
So far, it has been tedious but not a really rough ride.
- Ivan.
The current Component count is 21. I believe these remaining Pieces will need to be build with Components:
Supercharger Intake
Pilot Head
Pilot Body
Gunner Head
Gunner Body
Cockpit Fuselage Section
Control Panel Deck Area
Canopy Frame Side
Canopy frame Front
I hope there aren't any more Components needed than the ones listed here....
Otherwise things get much more complicated.
So far, it has been tedious but not a really rough ride.
- Ivan.
Tonight I finished up the Flaps from this morning.
I also rebuilt TWO Components in the Nose group into a single component. I have poked around at the result and can find no bleeds. To do it, The Oil Cooler Intake needed to be split into four Parts each with its own Glue, so the result is plus six Parts to save one Component.
I also found another Component I will need at the Tail Gear Fairing.
Pilot and Gunner are being trained. They now exist (copied from the SBD-3 Dauntless) but don't have a place to sit yet.
I will also need to go back and carve a Oil Cooler Exhaust in the Red Nose Component.
FWIW, my expectation is that this will have fewer bleeds and slightly better shapes than the payware aircraft mentioned here, but won't have quite as much Eye Candy with Moving Control Surfaces and the like.
I still think the Ju 87B is UGLY.
- Ivan.
I also rebuilt TWO Components in the Nose group into a single component. I have poked around at the result and can find no bleeds. To do it, The Oil Cooler Intake needed to be split into four Parts each with its own Glue, so the result is plus six Parts to save one Component.
I also found another Component I will need at the Tail Gear Fairing.
Pilot and Gunner are being trained. They now exist (copied from the SBD-3 Dauntless) but don't have a place to sit yet.
I will also need to go back and carve a Oil Cooler Exhaust in the Red Nose Component.
FWIW, my expectation is that this will have fewer bleeds and slightly better shapes than the payware aircraft mentioned here, but won't have quite as much Eye Candy with Moving Control Surfaces and the like.
I still think the Ju 87B is UGLY.
- Ivan.
Aircrew Added
I added the Pilot and Gunner this morning.
As a side note, I prefer to build the best example of a plane. One would think that the Ju 87D is a better plane than the Ju 87B. The actual differences aren't all that much from the pilot's point of view.
The Dora is about 20 kph (13 mph) faster than Bertha.
Bertha has a higher ceiling.
Dora has better armament especially for the gunner and about twice the bomb load.
Bertha is a much lighter plane but is short about 200 hp.
Bottom line is that other than a significant difference in bomb load, there isn't all that much difference. Those factors and having a set of REALLY GOOD drawings of Bertha meant that she got into line first. Besides, if Dora ever gets her time in the workshop, the wings and tail are nearly identical between the planes before the D-5.
BTW, if anyone finds shape screwups from the screenshots, do let me know. I keep finding little things myself.
- Ivan.
I added the Pilot and Gunner this morning.
As a side note, I prefer to build the best example of a plane. One would think that the Ju 87D is a better plane than the Ju 87B. The actual differences aren't all that much from the pilot's point of view.
The Dora is about 20 kph (13 mph) faster than Bertha.
Bertha has a higher ceiling.
Dora has better armament especially for the gunner and about twice the bomb load.
Bertha is a much lighter plane but is short about 200 hp.
Bottom line is that other than a significant difference in bomb load, there isn't all that much difference. Those factors and having a set of REALLY GOOD drawings of Bertha meant that she got into line first. Besides, if Dora ever gets her time in the workshop, the wings and tail are nearly identical between the planes before the D-5.
BTW, if anyone finds shape screwups from the screenshots, do let me know. I keep finding little things myself.
- Ivan.