Just a thread to post my airplane related stuff MODELING I am still a complete newbie in this! Although I've been lowkey admiring aeroplanes since I was little, only this year I became really enthusiastic about planes, aerodynamics, aviation, piloting all those sorts of stuff after being exposed to close-ups of different aircrafts during my internship. I then turned to SolidWorks to make solid bodies of planes just for the fun of it. Enjoy the newbie work I've put in Spoiler: Airbus A380-800 The first ever model I did in SolidWorks. So I followed a youtube tutorial online and heck, I learnt more from those few hours than I did in 4 months of school work. FFS The A380 is the largest commercial aircraft in aviation history. It was a challenge set out by Airbus to compete with Boeing B747. Till today, these 2 companies are still complete bitter rivals not because of their history, but simply because it's the European nations vs America in wanting to fight for higher stakes in this industry. Just this month, Airbus announced its decision to halt productions of this humungous plane in 2021 because of how they wrongly predicted the economics of aviation today. Bigger is not always better. Spoiler: Concorde Ok so I just wanted to play a little by adding images on the plane but it turned out not so great. This shit is hard, I've got to find out how to do it properly. Also tried adding features such as the cockpit windows and fuselage doors to give it a little flavour. I had problems adding the windows due to some mathematical errors in SolidWorks. Sigh... The Concorde was a commercial jet that was in operation from 1976 to 2003. It was the fastest in commercial aviation with cruising speeds that go beyond 2x the speed of sound (Mach 2.0+) while the standard cruising speed of majority of the planes we use today cruises at Mach 0.85. To put simply, the Concorde travel from Singapore to New York in around 9 hours! Typical airliners today will do the job in 17-18hours. Only British Airways and Air France (and 1 Singapore Airlines yay!) used the Concorde since the Brits and French were the ones who built it and wanted to keep the pride to themselves. The problem with the Concorde is fuel consumption and noise pollution. It consumes abour 4-5 times more fuel compared to present day planes. Also because it cruises beyond the speed of sound, the Concorde creates a sonicboom which is just deafening to people on the ground even at cruising altitudes and can even break glass on ground level. A new regulation was implemented that forbade the Concorde to cruise over major cities. The Concorde during it's near 3 decade operation had only 1 crash. But with 14 Concordes produced, it ranks the worst in safety. With so many apparent problems, the manufacturers were left with no choice but to stop its production and there goes the end of Concorde. To add on just a little, don't expect to have faster planes in the decade to come. Manufacturers today can actually let planes go up to Mach 3.0 but no, it's all kept around Mach 0.85 on purpose. Spoiler: Boeing B747-8i This took me 5 days to complete There's a Lufthansa 747-8i at my work place and was so inspired to do this. Lucky that it was docked there for a long time because I needed look and memorise certain features that are not clear in Google. Features like the wing-to-engine mount and also the wing tip. Was always a pleasure walking underneath this giant. It takes a shit load of time to add the windows and doors on the side just to give the model a little bit more life Only managed to model the features on the left side though, there were mathematical errors when mirroring to the right side. I still got to figure that out. But still a beaut! The Boeing B747-8i is under the B747 family. All B747s have that iconic hump at the forward section of the aircraft. I decided to model the 8i instead of the B747-400F or B747SP just because the hump stretches way more than those, making the look much more pronounced. Like all quad-engine aircrafts, the B747-8i and it's family are slowly phasing out especially the passenger versions. The freighter versions are still relatively relevant due to their massive fuselage size to carry as much cargo as possible. Boeing's profit from this B747 project is way off the charts. For about 5 decades, orders for the B747s are still coming in, but mainly from companies such as FedEx, UPS and Nippon Cargo Airways. With the proliferation of twin-engine aircraft and more efficient engines being built by Rolls Royce, Pratt and Whitney and General Electric, Airline companies will always opt for them since it's cheaper cheaper to build, more environmentally friendly and also, more ticket price friendly. As this family of aircraft slowly phase out, let's not forget what a game changer this aircraft was. If not for these family of planes for the past 5 decades, famous cities such as New York, London, Incheon and Paris will be highly congested. It was such a feat of engineering then, and is still one not to be reckon with today (A380 can't match this). Queen of the sky, B747-8i Spoiler: Boeing B777-300ER I actually modelled this plane slightly more than a week back, took me around 2 days. After making the B747, I decided to come back to this to match the standard such as small features and colouring which took about a day. So while I'm still new to this hobby, I found out that Boeing is currently making their most economically efficient plane to date, the Boeing B777-X series. Unfortunately, I could not find 2D views of that plane with end to end dimensions, therefore I went to model their older B777-300ER (extended range) instead since it lies within the 777 family. Though this is not as big as the A380 or B747, it is considered a wide-body aircraft, or in another term double-aisle aircraft. These planes have a smaller capacity as compared to the giants but being a two-engine plane, it is more efficient in terms of fuel consumption per hour per seat. Airline companies using two-engine planes will not suffer much losses compared to the larger planes assuming the percentage of empty seats are the same. Therefore in almost every possible aspect when comparing what planes to order from the large aircraft manufacturers, opting for twin-engine jets are the way to go. I've decided to dedicate this plane to Singapore Airlines. Being a Singaporean myself, I am more than proud that my country is able to climb its way up to being ranked no.1 airline company in the world It is no surprise that because of that, Changi International Airport in Singapore is ranked no.1 for several years. Also, Singapore Technologies Engineering - Aerospace is the leading aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) for several years as well. SG#1 Spoiler: McDonnell Douglas MD-90 Took me about 4 days to do this since I've decided to model the fuselage with a completely new approach relative to the first 4 models I've made. I understand that many of you won't be able to tell the difference because really, there's hundreds of ways to model as given shape. Anyways, I have nothing against McDonnell Douglas planes but there's really not much to say about this aircraft manufacturer. MD is based in USA and as of 1997, it merged with Boeing because MD planes were losing shares in the market around the mid 1980s onward. The MD-90 here is a short-ranged regional jet that is able to accommodate about 160 passengers give or take. One feature that you cannot miss is the engines being at the back of the fuselage, which is quite rare to see since most planes have their engines under the wings. One good reason why manufacturers place the engines at the back is because of manufacturing cost as it significantly simplifies wing design since there will be less weight on the wings. For this reason, flights on planes with rear engines are generally cheaper! You will see this plane most often in domestic flights in the US of A. In fact, most MD-90s that are flying today are operated by Delta Airlines. MD-90 is a very safe aeroplane to fly. First produced in 1995, the MD-90 has only 3 accidents which in total has only 1 fatality. That really is nothing compared to the recent cases of the BoeingB737-Max8. Sometimes I wonder if Boeing engineers of the 737-Max8 have any ethics. X-PLANE 11 Being an aviation enthusiast, I had to get my hands on a flight simulator as well. I fly mostly on the weekends at about 1 to 2 flights per day or whenever I'm free. I'm also on the VATSIM network to communicate with air traffic controllers. Spoiler: B737 | Tampa>Miami Intl | 28000ft FPS too low. So sad that a $1200USD rig is still giving 20-30FPS. REEEE. Still tho, enjoying my 34inch monitor Spoiler: Practice landings | Changi Int'l Airport | 20kt winds It's really dark and windy. Trying to practice some crab landings on a Cessna172 before actually wasting my time on large airliners. The lights in Singapore is just bootiful . Kinda suck that I veered off the runway even after touchdown. Spoiler: B737 | Miami Intl > Tampa | Crab Landing 20 knot winds are no joke. As a beginner, I couldn't tell whether whether my lateral velocity could cancel out the wind blowing from left to right of the aircraft. So I had to keep making adjustments and so I didn't hit the centreline of the runway, as shown in the last pic. It was pretty fun tho, I get to actually use my yoke more this time. I did touchdown nicely (nicer than irl RyanAir) but I happened to almost veer of the runway AGAIN just like the Cessna practice. I think it really has something to do with the nose gear wheels. It couldn't register 'Right' properly... Well, at least I got the near smooth touchdown right. That's already a hella progress to me ^^ Spoiler: King Air C90 | Practice Landings | Tampa Int'l Chillin' on a good Thursday afternoon. Slight breeze to practice landings on a new plane. Really liking this plane since it's dual engine, making easier to land and takeoff, although the controls are slightly harder cuz the plane is bigger than a cessna. Spoiler: B737 | Singapore Changi Airport to Suvarnabhumi Airport | Cruise Alt 34000ft Welcome to Bangkok I know there isn't such thing as WestJet in Asia..but I don't have any asian airline available T-T Spoiler: B777 | Singapore Changi Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport | 24000ft Bought a new aircraft B777-300ER to simulate! This time with a more realistic destination. Thai Airways from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Much harder to pilot since it's bigger and the yoke inputs will be less responsive compared to the smaller planes I've always used. Thankfully, I got a safe landing Spoiler: B777 | Test Flight with New Livery! Spoiler: B777 | Singapore to Manila | Cruise Alt 36000ft Singapore to Philippines! I landed pretty hard but Boeing says a firm landing is actually safer than trying to butter as best as possible. Spoiler: B777 | Kansai International to Haneda International | Cruise Alt 37000ft Osaka to Haneda! Both airports have pretty fun airways since there are many turns to do. I've got Sapporo, Narita and another Osaka airport to try out with Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways Spoiler: B777 | Changi International to Phuket International | FL380 Thanks to the Boeing 737-Max8 groundings, SilkAir cannot fly from Singapore to Thailand. So SIA is taking over for awhile. Landed in phuket. A really short run plus it's a down slope. Gotta apply full breaks! Spoiler: B738 | Kuala Lumpur to Changi | FL250 | VATSIM Another VATSIM flight done from KL to SG. People game on 100fps. I be at 25fps.
Noice, but why not a curved wing like 787 dreamliner? And what's the benefit behind it anyway? Seems like there's none and in fact could reduce lift.
Do you mean curve upwards? If so, all planes' wings curve upwards during flight because closer to the wing tips, the relative lift is higher than that nearer to the fuselage. While the planes are on the ground, the wings are actually quite straight. To get into more detail... Aspect ratio = wing spam / chord length The higher the aspect ratio, the higher the relative lift. As you move towards the wing tips, the aspect ratio slowly increases, therefore the lift nearer to the wing tips is actually relatively higher than the lift nearer to the fuselage. Wings are meant to flex as much as possible in order to ensure the comfort of all passengers (i.e. if you see the wings shaking a lot during flight, it's actually a good thing) since the wing mass is smaller and therefore is easily subjected to turbulence. The A380 don't have such upward curved wings because of the weight of the extra set of engines. To curve it up only means increasing the stress significantly at the root of the wing. Also, any non-jumbo jets made after the 787 will likely follow the wing flexibility of the 787.
@Aeronautics I added Concorde. The nose could be a little longer but too many mathematical errors prevent me from making adjustments. QQ
sincerely enjoyed reading the background information on those planes. out of curiosity (if you know), why don't they just create a plane/engine that flies at speeds just under those which cause glass beneath it to shatter? i assume that the primary reason comes from a business standpoint as there is more profitability in flying the slower, lower fuel consuming planes? is there a possibility of bettering the fuel consumption for such planes in the future?
Ur assumption is absolutely correct. The whole aviation industry is shaped by business. The planes are also made based on what airline companies want. So for example, Airlines request for a plane with X seats capacity, can travel for shortest time possible between A and B and with lower fuel per hour per seat consumption. Airbus, Boeing etc will make the planes based on what the customer wants. There's also a threshold. To go for the shortest time possible, you have to give up fuel cost per seat blabla. To have the fastest speed, you have drag(air friction) equations that have a velocity-squared (V^2) factor. Meaning doubling the speed will give u quadraple the drag you encounter and therefore more fuel consumption. So currently, the intersection between fuel consumption, speed, comfort, aerodynamics etc all meet at a point where a lot of planes satisfy right now but the Concorde absolutely does not. Furthermore, the Concorde only caters to the rich and wealthy as the seats were priced equivalent to present day US$12,000. Most tickets today hardly ever go $1000 for the economy class. To put simply, engineers can make a plane close to the Concorde but it will not sell. However, that doesn't mean nobody is reinventing the Concorde. There is a startup company called Boom Technology that is wanting to create a supersonic plane. We'll see what happens to its launch in 2023.
This (taken from https://www.airforce-technology.com) and this (taken from https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com) Built both these bad boys when I was a kid. Think it was Revell-branded.
Crab landing practice | Changi Intl | 20kt winds It's really dark and windy. Trying to practice some crab landings on a Cessna172 before actually wasting my time on large airliners. The lights in Singapore is just bootiful . Kinda suck that I veered off the runway even after touchdown.
B737 | Miami Intl > Tampa | Crab Landing 20 knot winds are no joke. As a beginner, I couldn't tell whether whether my lateral velocity could cancel out the wind blowing from left to right of the aircraft. So I had to keep making adjustments and so I didn't hit the centreline of the runway, as shown in the last pic. It was pretty fun tho, I get to actually use my yoke more this time. I did touchdown nicely (nicer than irl RyanAir) but I happened to almost veer of the runway AGAIN just like the Cessna practice. I think it really has something to do with the nose gear wheels. It couldn't register 'Right' properly... Well, at least I got the near smooth touchdown right. That's already a hella progress to me ^^ And damn...I'm thinking to upgrade my AMD CPU. This FPS, though looks smooth, isn't enough for a simulator. FFS I know what the europeans are thinking. What the fuck is a RyanAir doing in 'Murica
King Air C90 | Practice Landings | Tampa Int'l Chillin' on a good Thursday afternoon. Slight breeze to practice landings on a new plane. Really liking this plane since it's dual engine, making easier to land and takeoff, although the controls are slightly harder cuz the plane is bigger than a cessna.
Welcome to Bangkok I know there isn't such thing as WestJet in Asia..but I don't have any asian airline available T-T
Bought a new aircraft B777-300ER to simulate! This time with a more realistic destination. Thai Airways from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Much harder to pilot since it's bigger and the yoke inputs will be less responsive compared to the smaller planes I've always used. Thankfully, I got a safe landing
