Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Hi All,

I thought I would start a thread here to track my progress. This will be a bit of a project thread, but with a twist. I've started creating a 3D cad model of the Thorp, my goal is to recreate the entire aircraft assembly in cad. I'm doing this for a couple of reasons;
- I want a digital representation of the aircraft to improve my understanding of the plane
- I think a 3D model will be helpful for others in the community
- I have some longer-term ideas for improvements to the design that I can use modern design software to help with.

To start with here is a quick picture of the firewall model that I have produced


For ease of sharing I'm using Fusion 360 for the project.

Long way to go, even in the first part as the thorp has some really complicated geometry to represent in CAD land.

Let me know what you think, and any advice you might have. I'd also be interested if anyone has embarked on something like this before.

T-18 or S-18? Good start. Firewall is same on both.

_________________
Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

wow, that is cool. keep the pics coming.

I’m working on the T18 at the moment.

I support your efforts. But please be advised that the design rights to the T18 and S18 are wholly owned and may not be duplicated or sold.
Cubes

Just a minor update to keep things going, I've completed part 527 the attached beam for the landing gear and added it and the firewall to an assembly. This will go on to be the assembly to which all the parts are added to.

A side effect of doing this is we can get pretty renders like the first image below. I've also included a couple of shots showing a reference drawing and the normal assembly view.

Might start tackling some of the frames next.










Thanks for the gentle reminder, I don't plan on any rights breachs, this is purely for myself right now.

Cheers,
Bryan

It’s pretty cool to see where the parts fit and how they look!
Cubes

I am looking for a T18C 3D model which could be used to 3D print the entire aircraft as scale model.
Would be great, if someone could provide any kind of 3D file. I know there are wooden scale models out there for 300 USD, but I want to print and customize it myself, but since I am not skilled enough to do a 3D model myself ...

Any feedback would be welcome .. thx.

Another update for you all, I had a shot at bulkhead 576. I basically wanted to prove to myself that I could make accurate joggles and odd angle bends, and this I think I've proven it to myself! Modern cad software isn't really geared to this kind of shape, so this was a combination of angled planes for sketches plus a lot of sweeps to get the correct orientation of the joggles. This success and the method I've found should allow me to do all the other frames in a similar fashion.

The keen-eyed of you will notice it's missing most of the holes on the face, these will come in the future, but they are relatively trivial to place.





I can definitely make a model that is solid and 3d printable, I'm focusing on creating an actual 3D representation of the entire Aircraft assembly so that all the parts exist in 3D. A model which was solid or just an external shell might be better suited for 3D Printing, What sort of scale were you thinking?

Thanks for the update and the feedback, sounds outstanding that you could provide a 3D shell model. Would it be a T18C means regular T18 fuselage and S-18 wings (since mine has that setup)? I am looking for 1:24 ratio or somewhere in that range, big enough to not be overlooked. What kind of data format you can provide for 3D printing?

Btw. it sounds like a hell of a job to model the entire plane, piece by piece ... respect

BR,
Heintje

This is a great initiative that you're undertaking!

_________________
John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

Just a quick update for today, Mostly because I've been working on things that aren't visually that interesting, so I added one big thing to make it look good.

The engine!




I've been preparing the assembly I've been working on to be able to design a new engine mount for the UL Power 390 engine. This basically just involves adjusting and checking the assembly to get everything perfectly aligned so that I can start work on the mount itself in the context of the assembly. I've added the UL Power provided STEP file recently and you can start to see where I'm trying to go with this. I hope you enjoy it!

Bryan

Hi Bryan,

any progress on the 3D shell model for the 3D printing?
You maybe can contact me individually via h.wyczisk@gmx.de ...
I am curious to get it printed ;o)

Thx in advance,

Heintje