Preliminary Planning

Here are the methods I use to enhance an RC model by using CAD. The examples all use the 1/6th scale model of the Beechcraft Super King Air B200 that Paul Reese and I are collaborating on. (The little metal ball you will see above the fuselage in some of these images is a 3D "marker" where the center of gravity will be.)

We first began discussing doing a model of the C90 B, so I made this very basic CAD model, with the idea of correcting it as we got more data. I find this easier than waiting until I have all the data, then making the model "all at once".

After receiving the first drawings from Raytheon, some improvements were made to the basic model, and you can see it's starting to look a little more accurate.

Partway into the research phase, Paul and I changed our minds, and decided to model the "Super King Air B200" instead of the C90 B. This was due to the fact that we both have B200s in our area to physically measure and document, and also because another well-known modeler had already done the C90 B. We want our model to be completely original and unique. Since there are some general similarities between the two aircraft, it was fairly easy to adjust the C90 B model to approximately the B200's dimensions. Other items, such as the landing gear, had to be changed too. We chose a scale of 1/6th for our model.

I found an EPS (vector) drawing on NASA's web site, of their B200, and it was the basis for the first comparisons of the CAD model to some drawings, shown here. At this stage we weren't too concerned about tiny details, but rather just getting the exterior shape as close to the drawings as possible.

This image was really interesting to me. I discovered a CAD model of the B200 on another modeler's web site, and decided to compare it to ours. This image shows both models occupying the same 3D space. Our model is RED, and the other one is white. The "leakage" of our model through the other one shows the dimensional differences, after I had corrected some of the major discrepancies. (The other model's horizontal stabilizer was not swept, as it should be, for example.) You can also see here, if you're familiar with the actual B200, that the nacelles are the wrong shape. This model comparison pointed out some errors in our model too, so it was useful.

>>>Go to the next page, "Project Details", to see how we then developed the CAD model.

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