Jed wrote:
> If anyone out there enjoys using these CAD/CAM drawing programs, please > contact me by private e-mail. I would like to commission a drawing of a > futuristic six-engined, wingless VTOL airplane, if you can imagine such a > thing. A rough sketch would be fine. It does not have to be detailed and it > certainly does not have to be airworthy, even in theory, not that I could > judge. I did a Google image search but I did not find anything appealing. > > I know nothing about CAD/CAM programs. I do not even know what "CAM" stands > for. It is the part on the shaft that opens the valve. It's Computer Aided Design & Computer Aided Manufactruing. The objective is to remove the vast amounts of paperwork in the design and manufacturing of any complex machine: airplane, automobile, dishwasher, etc. Current technology can do the whole job in software, with 3-D checking for inteference of parts, automatic production of solid models of arbitrary shape (such as a chain of solid, independent links), and finally operation of complex machining tools. Groups in various parts of the world can work on the same machine. I think that a major aircraft manufacturer did a whole design in CAD/CAM. But why a six-engine VTOL when a four engine car-like VTOL craft already exists? It has four ducted fans driven by Wankel engines at the corners and redundant computers to achieve flight stability. Mike Carrell
