Fire-bomber Jet P-38

[Ollie]

Haha!

Happy new year everyone, here's my gift to you to finish the year.

Tophe sent me this 3-view of one of his jet P-38 design modified with a belly tank.  15 minutes later using Photoshop I give you this....

[elmayerle]

Hmm, basic design looks good, but the exhaust nozzle/tailboom area needs a bit of "fine tuning" to keep the exhaust jet from attaching due to Coanda effect.

[Tophe]

I hope I understand "fine tuning" (decreasing height ?), to send an improved basis to dear C-FWOL...

[elmayerle]

I hope I understand "fine tuning" (decreasing height ?), to send an improved basis to dear C-FWOL...

Mostly a bit of contouring ahead of the nozzle to separate the nozzle from the boom and a bit of a "pen-nip" fairing aft of the nozzle to be certain the exhaust doesn't attach to the boom; somewhat like the "sugarscoop" above the exhausts on most A-4's.  If necessary, I'll sketch up a concept, scan it, and email it to you.

[Tophe]

Dear Evan, I am sorry I do not plainly understand these very technical words of yours and I guess Babel Fish translater will not be enough help. May Ollie translate in French ? Or send me the drawings you are speaking of, but I am going to send you before my updated drawing of some minutes ago, in case this is improved enough. Thanks.

[elmayerle]

Dear Evan, I am sorry I do not plainly understand these very technical words of yours and I guess Babel Fish translater will not be enough help. May Ollie translate in French ? Or send me the drawings you are speaking of, but I am going to send you before my updated drawing of some minutes ago, in case this is improved enough. Thanks.

I got your drawing and obviously Bablefish did mistranslate - I'll mark this drawing up and see if I can sketch up a few details and email the scans back to you later today.

[retro_seventies]

this is fascinating, eh?

hotshot engineers and dreamers hitting the language barrier head on, but STILL turning out a stunning plane....

good work tophe and evan....this really is great!

[Captain Canada]

Yeah, Tophe...cool plane !

Who's gonna build it, Huh ?

And Ollie, looks great in the fire-bomber scheme !

Cheers !

Toadman

[elmayerle]

The marked up drawing and a quick detail sketch of the fairing have been scanned and emailed.  Let me know if further detail drawings are needed.  It's a minor tweak, but it means a good bit to the airframe life.  I think this is turning out very nicely indeed.

[Tophe]

hotshot engineers and dreamers
good work tophe and evan....

Well received your scans and sent back the updated 3-view, Evan.
But what was the meaning of Retro 70s' words ? Are you an aeronautic engineer, Evan ?  Great ! Nice to know you ! When I was a kid I wanted to be an aeronautic engineer (after having dreamed to become a cartoonist), and it is nice to meat a real one, and moreover : a real engineer still dreamy and not awfully serious as proud professionals can be...
If we have the chance to have a technical expert here among us, I am sure we have many questions to ask, to understand or improve what-if planes. Just confirm and I will prepare the main questions I have about twin-boomers...      

[elmayerle]

hotshot engineers and dreamers
good work tophe and evan....

Well received your scans and sent back the updated 3-view, Evan.
But what was the meaning of Retro 70s' words ? Are you an aeronautic engineer, Evan ?  Great ! Nice to know you ! When I was a kid I wanted to be an aeronautic engineer (after having dreamed to become a cartoonist), and it is nice to meat a real one, and moreover : a real engineer still dreamy and not awfully serious as proud professionals can be...
If we have the chance to have a technical expert here among us, I am sure we have many questions to ask, to understand or improve what-if planes. Just confirm and I will prepare the main questions I have about twin-boomers...    

Yes, I am an aeronautical engineer.  I've been working in the industry for some 30 years since getting my degree.  Somewhere back when I first started posting I listed the main jobs I've had in this business.  I'll be glad to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

[Tophe]

Wonderful ! Thanks ! I will prepare this list of questions, but maybe there will be a long file of waiting what-ifers having questions for you, and I do not ask for any priority...
Sorry, I should have read what you said first, but I do not read every post here, and I may fail to get information sometimes. I have noticed that under your name was the mention of "hotshot engineer" but I thought it was just a joke, like "I am Charles Lindbergh Jr" as we tend to mix dream and Reality, here, you know...
Well, I hope you are happy to see all the fans of aeronautic engineers that are here, your colleagues and you are just our heroes...  

[nev]

Tophe, you know, I never thought of it like that - we are all fans of the highly complex pieces of engineering that Evan and his ilk design.  Now we may not appreciate all the ingenious solutions to the various problems that Aeronautical engineers come up with, we just know the planes look good!   Meanwhile poor old Evan is crying into his beer about how no-one ever appreciates all the work he did solving that pesky leak on the back-up hydraulic system that only occurs at 32,000 ft, when the ground temp is below 46.3 degrees.  On a Thursday    


Anyway Evan, I thought of a quote a friend of mine once said.  He was a young hot-shot engineer at the local oil refinery.   He told me

"It wasn't scientists who put man on The Moon, it was the engineers".  



I thought about it and decided he was right

[elmayerle]

I do agree with that comment, nev.  However, I've never cried in my beer about not being recognized.  I'm a design engineer and if I've done my job properly, everything installs fine and works properly and no one notices the efforts put in.  I've hardware on the ISS that works like a charm (or it'd've been reported in the news) and the only ones I really got any feedback from are the astronauts who installed it (they liked the approach I'd taken).   I've done a variety of analyses that've sometimes annoyed management drones, such as when I find either items missed before or my results don't exactly match what they've been telling the Customer (in one case, to rub it in, RL agreed very closely with my analysis).  I'm the "resident design engineer" on a couple other forums and I don't hesitate to say "I don't know" when the question goes beyond what I feel comfortable with.  Heh, if you pick up the novel "1633", you'll find I get a brief mention in the afterward for such a contribution.

[Tophe]

I thought this was a dream...  What if twin-boomers that I love were fighting forest-fires that I hate ?   But looking closer, this seems a true story, thanks to the California Department of fire...