Whoops. . .not like a spaceship type starfighter!
I haven't been posting much work of late because I've been attempting to learn Rhino's deepest secrets embeded in the help files and tuts written for people who already know how to use it. I've probably discovered modeling techniques that everyone here probably already knows.
My hardest problem was making realistic wings--a simple loft of cross-sections never did the trick. Another problem, figuring out those pesky and tricky surface blends. Well those demons have been conquered and putting them to task I decided to make a rather simple jet fighter. I have always like the F-104 Starfighter. This of course isn't the Starfighter, but a plane of near like dimension and body style. This isn't supposed to be a futuristic or cutting edge design as it is as stealthy as, well, the F-104. Plans for a next generation cutting edge jet are brewing (like a blend of the YF-23, X-36, and Boeing BoP).
This happens to be both the first and the third attempt at producing the plane. The first model was experimentation. I started two new attempts, they sucked, and I went back to the first and modified it.
I scaled the fusalage to the general specs of the Pratt and Whitney F100 series jet engine. That info is on their website. The model engine is the same length but close. The AIM-9 is just a mock-up whose specs I found on the web. Its good for determining scale.
I didn't want the intakes to be dark holes going into the fuslage. This took some playing around with and envolved an outside surface that flows into the fusalge, and an internal surface that flows up to the engine. The external surface is not blended into the fusalage and the intakes remain one polysurface.
Yep, the flight surfaces move, a painstaking process in Rhino.
