When I look at industrial objects, I’m occasionally reminded of a term one of my professors frequently used when referring to the genesis of various forms. He called it its ‘wasness’ — in other words, what was it before it became this, or what sort of geometry gave birth to this form?
Recently I came across this geometric abomination. It’s so freakishly ugly that I at first assumed (hoped?) that it must be photoshopped, but it turns out that such an aircraft really does exist:
Notice the awkward collision of geometry near the cockpit, which is made even worse by the fact that the windows are actually flat planes set into the rounded contours of the fuselage.
Just as a challenge, I tried creating it in SolidWorks, but finally threw in the towel when I couldn’t get the surfaces to blend together properly. I assume the aircraft was designed using Catia or some program like it, but I have no idea what procedure was used to create these shapes. I’ve tried using 3D splines and projected curves, but nothing seems to work.
The aircraft sure does exist….it flies over near here quite regularly. They use them to fly sections of Airbus from factories all over Europe to the main assembly line in Toulouse. If you are ever in the UK, take a trip to Chester zoo….you usually get one or two of these flights a day :-)
They might not have been done in CATIA – dare I say they might not have been done in CAD at all – these things have been flying for well over 15 years as far as I am aware.
Strange that I’ve never seen one before. Perhaps they’re just too ugly to obtain landing rights in the US. The last time I was in the UK, I had the pleasure of watching some Spitfires circle overhead. Much nicer to look at than the Beluga. :-)
Haha, wow, that is almost certainly the most hideous aircraft I’ve ever seen. It was indeed most likely surfaced in Catia, but it could certainly be approximated in SolidWorks. The detailed step-by-step would be really complicated though, and I fear it wouldn’t be a dreadfully popular video series ;)
Adam
Good, I’m glad to hear that. :-) I can think of some really involved ways to do it too, but there was a lingering doubt that perhaps I was missing something, because no designer in his right mind would deliberately create something that complicated. One of my high school classmates – now an aeronautical engineer – explained to me that the reason commercial aircraft designers still follow the simple but uninspiring formula of sticking wings and a tail on a circular tube is because it’s the most flexible solution, and also the cheapest. This thing looks more like some bad mushrooms got into the the engineer’s salad. LOL
[img]http://th00.deviantart.net/fs20/PRE/i/2007/278/0/c/Airbus_Beluga_II_by_Metalstorm_Tech.jpg[/img]
they’ve sculpt in zbrush and then exported as an IGES to CAD… ;P