The 80's, the 90's and the new century

[RussC]

  After 50 years of flying wing and tail-less design, the 1980's saw a slowdown in new designs, and a lot of existing machines extended with the new economics and politics. The first design to break out of this pattern in the mid 80's was the Boeing 797 Wingliner, the first basic Blended Wing Body airliner or BWB. This design enabled economic design of smaller seat-count transoceanic passenger carry, allowing smaller airlines to go International. The 97' was notable in that it was one of the last flying wings designed by analog drafting methods and produced primarily in metals. From this point onward, CG and composites would take ever large shares of aerospace.
 
 Card model, shown with a 1/200 diecast Savoia S66X airliner (ModelPower)
 
 
 
 
 
 A surprise came in the form of the reappearance of the swept wing versus the triangle. A specialized design for high altitude operation, inspired by the U-2, Stratosfera and the long wing Canberras, a high flying wing. The Lockheed U-8 was a composite wing structure using high bypass turbofans optimized for the upper stratosphere. This card model is shown in NASA low-heating white and markings, with a weather research mission stripe. The U-8 would become a test bed for many new aerospace ideas, instruments and projects. A 2009 rebuilt U-8 had semitransparent wings that were solar collectors to run the main fans in conjunction with fuel cells using bio-fuels.
 
 
 
 

 Some designs like the B2 arose in this period of the 90's built around the Stealth mission, but clearly the cold war was done and so was the need for large numbers of strategic platforms, but the need for Air transport, Command and control planes and tankers will always be there and Boeing in the early 2000's decided to combine all 3 in one airframe, a new concept BWB.
 
  Plastic model, 1/288 scale using 737 wings (144th) and styrene sheet stock with 1/200 scale 747 engines. Shown with a 1/288 B-35 for scale.
 
 
 
 
 
 And with these, my presentation of an alternate aerospace history based on flying wing, tail-less or blended body designs comes to an end.

[TsrJoe]

truly inspiring modelling Russ, cant say which are my favourites as all are equally brilliantly executed and realised 

are you stil continuing the theme ? wings ... triangles ... circular ? id love to see more of your work

bestest wishes, Joe 

[PR19_Kit]

FANTASTIC! 

Naturally my fave is the U-8, but it's a close run thing.

[Pablo1965]

I love that AWAKS 

[RussC]

truly inspiring modelling Russ, cant say which are my favourites as all are equally brilliantly executed and realised  

are you stil continuing the theme ? wings ... triangles ... circular ? id love to see more of your work

bestest wishes, Joe  

 Well, my actual hobby bench has been idle for a few months, as I'm devoting my time to learning computer graphics and web design, both online edu and self learn....trying to re-tool and get back into a job again. You see, there is not much of a demand for semiconductor design graphics people now as there is considerable software available to accomplish this. That's right , computers ARE designing themselves- but before you scream "Ohmygod its Skynet!, you do still need research engineers to use and guide these programs and check the results, and keep human presence. Just a much smaller shop. So I'm going from the hardware end to applications end and hoping the US economy awakens someday.
 
 So, it would be a lot more likely that I'll be creating airplanes in artwork now, both 2D and as I get more experience - 3D. These will be as much for my portfolio as for internet galleries.

 What I'm going to do also is before a lot of my methods fade from memory as far as card models go (and I'm astounded that they created such a positive response here) I plan to draw up some techniques segments, and copy over more of it that I have documented from KG144 bbs too. creating some of these have really proved good learning tools for the Adobe Creative suite tools.
 
  Will likely return to physical modelmaking someday, I have had two sabbaticals from the hobby in the past - each time returning and taking up the next smaller scale for some reason, 1/144 the most recent time.

   Thanks again, everyone and have a great week.
 
   I do have a few non-flying-wing whiffs I have to dig up pictures of and bring here.   

[Taiidantomcat]

... but the need for Air transport, Command and control planes and tankers will always be there and Boeing in the early 2000's decided to combine all 3 in one airframe, a new concept BWB.
 
 And with these, my presentation of an alternate aerospace history based on flying wing, tail-less or blended body designs comes to an end.

But there are more in the future right?   Really like the idea of combining all three of those tasks into one. Great models again!

[Maverick]

Really wonderful stuff Russ.  It's been a pleasure to look them over.

Regards,

Mav

[Taiidantomcat]

truly inspiring modelling Russ, cant say which are my favourites as all are equally brilliantly executed and realised  

are you stil continuing the theme ? wings ... triangles ... circular ? id love to see more of your work

bestest wishes, Joe  

 Well, my actual hobby bench has been idle for a few months, as I'm devoting my time to learning computer graphics and web design, both online edu and self learn....trying to re-tool and get back into a job again. You see, there is not much of a demand for semiconductor design graphics people now as there is considerable software available to accomplish this. That's right , computers ARE designing themselves- but before you scream "Ohmygod its Skynet!, you do still need research engineers to use and guide these programs and check the results, and keep human presence. Just a much smaller shop. So I'm going from the hardware end to applications end and hoping the US economy awakens someday.
 
 So, it would be a lot more likely that I'll be creating airplanes in artwork now, both 2D and as I get more experience - 3D. These will be as much for my portfolio as for internet galleries.

 What I'm going to do also is before a lot of my methods fade from memory as far as card models go (and I'm astounded that they created such a positive response here) I plan to draw up some techniques segments, and copy over more of it that I have documented from KG144 bbs too. creating some of these have really proved good learning tools for the Adobe Creative suite tools.
 
  Will likely return to physical modelmaking someday, I have had two sabbaticals from the hobby in the past - each time returning and taking up the next smaller scale for some reason, 1/144 the most recent time.

   Thanks again, everyone and have a great week.
 
   I do have a few non-flying-wing whiffs I have to dig up pictures of and bring here.   

You really must not be a stranger, we have plenty of room for CGI and Profiles too  Never seen any modeling like yours Russ, paper with paint, Plastic, and wood all coming together to bring extremely unique concepts together. Its not just the ideas that are unique, its everything and amazingly It all works perfectly together.

[TsrJoe]

Hear, hear, i would like to echo the previous members comments, heres hoping the muse visits you once again, im in the throes of learning a new cnc operating system (grrr why cant they be standardised) i know what you refer as to stifling modelling time. Definately looking forward to seeing your construction notes and other modelworks too tho

Best wishes, joe

[NARSES2]

Stunning stuff again. Best of luck with the "re-tooling" 

[MilitaryAircraft101]

  Awesome Russ! Love it When you learn 3D, you can also post cross sections for us to scratchbuild som neat designs Looking forward to seeing some of your profiling as well.

[PACOPEPE]

Wonderful, more!, more!,


Fran

[RussC]

Thanks everyone. Have a great weekend.
 

[arkon]

would love to see some of your techniques

[Lord Darth Beavis]

Beautiful work, mate!  One nit I must pick, however:  On the AWACS, the body of the aircraft would block the look-down aspect of the radar.  Might I suggest hanging a radar disc under the aircraft?  Wouldn't do for a bad guy to take it down by sneaking up from underneath!