Hello everbody,

I wonder if anyone can tell me where can I find a geometric model of a full airplane configuration or any other three dimensional configuration. Thanks for your help.

(1). I would start from the model airplane shops. (2). Somehow the plastic airplane models are fairly good. For accurate dimensions, I would guess that only the airframe companies have their airplane drawings. (3). Airplanes come with many parts and pieces, so, I guess, it is not easy to get a complete set of drawings. (3). I don't know whether NASA has model airplane geometry available to the public or not. But you can look into the NASA library or reports.

If you're not too particular about what you model (ie if youre not concerned about comparing to experimental results) then you can try a kitplane. many Kitplanes come in plans form (built form plans) so if you buy or other wise obtain the palns you shou;d be able to solid model the a/c.

Hi,

just a curiosity: do you need a CAD geometry, a 3D grid or something else?

Cheers

Maurizio

Thanks everyone. The scale models' plans won't be accurate enough, because I do want accurate geometry to compare calculations with experimental results.

Yes Maurizio, I'am looking for CAD data or a 3D surface grid for airplane configuration.

(1). It is still a good aproach to build a model airplane first. (2). Then digitize the geometry from the model for mesh generation. (3). The model can then be used in a wind tunnel to measure the overal lift and drag. You can also measure the flow field around the model airplane. (4). You can then run the cfd code to predict the flow field over the model airplane and compare the results with the model airplane test data. (5). This is exactly how the airplane is tested and designed, except the in most cases the model is mode of metal instead of plastic. (still there were wood airplane model used in the design and testing in old days)(6). It is going to be difficult to get a set of free airplane drawings or CAD files, because it normally takes many years to design and develop an airplane (from 5 to 20 years). The best place is something like a model generic airplane. In that case, you may want to do the reverse-search, from the published test data to the airplane geometry.

Shereef, What kind of CFD code are you going to use? even if you got the geometry some how it meight be useless if you couldn't import it by your code. The best way to do it is to start from a tutorial close to your problem. Most of the commercial codes provide these tutorials. Again, let us start from your code first.

Hi Here is one more idea If you really need the 3D coordinates of points on airplain body You can try to search any AutoCAD libraries and examples beacuse I'm sure that there is a set of surface points of something like F-15 there - my students found it and used this cad file in there 3D graphics demonstration of there homework The format of the file is pretty simple 1 The number of points 2 Points themselves x,y,z

I have developed my own code, so the input format can be controlled. I've seen some AutoCad files on 3d-cafee site but most of them were very crude geometries.

Let's talk about it in Cairo, I will be back soon(Oct.1).

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