Simple Lofting
Steve Griffiths offers a proven method of creating accu-
rate fuselage former shapes
Figure 1, Similar Triangles in Lofting =
“a metmangies
1's rare that a scale drawing has on it
all the sections needed to develop
fuselage formers for
and working out the
shapes can be a bit of a hassle. I's
‘even worse when you come to put the
fmodel together and find that, ike a
‘Sumo wrestler, is skin doesnt fit. [use
simple process to approximate the
‘outlines of formers that { want to put
between given sections and it works
well enough for me.
There is however a limitation, in that
it won't work along a length of fuselage
where there is significant discontinuity
in outline, as it relies upon there being a
fairly smooth transition between one
siven section and the next.
‘The method described here is most
casily accomplished if you can use a
scanner and a drawing or image-manipa-
lation package or computer-aided design
(CAD) software on a PC, but is quite
practicable even with peneil and paper,
‘when an enlarging photocopier will be a
‘great help. Whichever way you tackle it,
you will probably need a pocket caleula
tot ora brain better than mine,
‘The process is known as “lof
from the full-size practice, along similar
lines (!), of drawing out shapes full-size
‘on the floor of a“ofting shed” in order to
perform exactly the same function, but I
rather think my approach i alittle more
suited to our kitchen-table environment.
The principle on which it works is akin to
that of similar triangles, a concept that
you may remember from your school.
‘days if you were paying attention.
For our purposes, we need consider
only right-angled triangles: if such a
angle (fig.1a) has a vertical drawn part-
‘way along its base to form a smaller (and
in that all its angles are the same
triangle, the height ofthis
smaller triangle isthe same proportion of
the original height as is its base to the
original base (ie. X:¥ = AB), We can
‘employ this property to determine 1
difference in’ size of different stations
‘along a fuselage (fig. 1b), Where there are
two given sections (oddly labelled 1 and
2) and an intermediate section is wanted
33% of the distance between them, all
that is needed is to draw a line between
the edges of the original sections, move
33% of the way from the starting point,
and drop a vertical to the centre line.
Where this meets the edge line defines
the size of the section at that position,
‘Apart from this dealing only with one
‘along the surface, it also assumes
that there is no curvature in the surface,
a situation that is relatively unusual on
full-size aircraft so it is by no means the
complete answer. It docs however, |
hhope, demonstrate the principle.
‘So now, to the actual practice: (1 pro-
xed on the basis that a scanner and
appropriate PC software are available,
land you should be able to see from th
‘how the manual process would go.
Start from, typically. a 1:72 scale draw
ing. sean and enlarge the sections given
fon the drawing. If they can be the final
size needed, it will save a little resizing
work later on, but for the best accuracy
they should be as large as ean be man-
aged and when you see the full process,
you will be able to decide just how large
that is for you. A pais of consecutive see
tion outlines should then be overlaid in a
single image and aligned on a common
horizontal datum, with both centre lines
‘corresponding exactly (Lig. 28). Only one
half of each section will be needed, spit
vertically, so half can be deleted ({ig. 2b.
There isa choice of two ways to pro-
ceed at this point. I mark off and connect
by straight lines each section at the same
percentages of its height and depth from
the horizontal (fig 3a), but an alternative
is to draw lines radiating from the inter:
section of the datum and the centre lin
to connect the sections (fig. 3b). Both
seem to work well enough, although 1
SS