Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
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I remember April and May of 2007 when I sculpted the Aerolid. I had never heard of ecomodder.com or ever seen Aeroheads template. I sculpted the clay model by eye in the old fashioned true clay modeling techniques I had learned at Ford from the old expert master modelers. These techniques were refined and done all by hand well before any computers or five axis mills.
I sculpted the Aerolid by feel, no wind tunnel or CFD programs what so ever, just me and the clay. I finished when it looked right and felt right. In 2008 I saw Aeroheads very useful template for the first time. I did an overlay of it over a photo of the Aerolid and it fit perfect.
I come from an aircraft prototyping background and what I learned there was from men like Irv Culver, who had no Engineering degree, but worked for Kelly Johnson's "Skunk Works" and developed the SR-71 Blackbird. I had the fortune to work with Mr. Culver on a wind tunnel model of the Avtek 400 advanced turboprop aircraft in 1986.
So I guess it is possible to create correct aerodynamic form, without computers or CFD programs, just from if it feels right if derived from experience.
Bondo