{"id":50000,"date":"2022-06-17T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=50000"},"modified":"2022-06-14T09:54:02","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T13:54:02","slug":"designing-and-3d-printing-an-r-c-b-17g-flying-fortress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2022\/06\/designing-and-3d-printing-an-r-c-b-17g-flying-fortress.html","title":{"rendered":"Designing and 3D Printing an R\/C B-17G Flying Fortress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of my formative years as a kid were spent in the 1990\u2019s, when the movie Memphis Belle was released.\u00a0 Being an airplane nerd, it instantly became my favorite film and still is to this day.\u00a0 It\u2019s not really a critically acclaimed movie, but if you have any interest at all in aviation or World War II history, you must see it.\u00a0 This movie has it all: it has action, it has drama, and even some pretty great comedic scenes, like one featuring my favorite type of soup.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a really great story about one of the first B-17 crews to complete 25 missions, a full tour of duty, which allowed the crew to go home.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m 37 now.\u00a0 Since I started in the R\/C hobby at the age of 12 I\u2019ve dreamed of having a model of the B-17 Flying Fortress. So, with my SOLIDWORKS tools and 3D printers sitting idle in anticipation, I decided to build one.<\/p>\n

From the start of this project, I was committed to making the B-17 look as scale as possible.\u00a0\u00a0 Little did I know that decision would add around 100 hours of CAD work to the project just designing the scale details like the tire hubs, dummy radial engines, and a ton of simulated panel lines.<\/p>\n

This project came introduced some interesting technical challenges as well.\u00a0 Because this is a four-engine bomber, there is a bunch of equipment installed inside the aircraft that I need to have access to.\u00a0 So carefully designing various hatches was important.\u00a0 This included a large, main hatch on top for accessing the fuselage servos and batteries, a rear hatch on the bottom for accessing the tailwheel assembly and the rudder\/elevator control hookups, and a hatch under each engine nacelle for accessing the Electronic Speed Controls, main landing gear, and the optional flap servo.\u00a0 Not to mention, some small hatches to mount the aileron servos to.<\/p>\n

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The B-17 was produced in several different model versions during its lifecycle, receiving various armament and performance add-ons as World War II progressed.\u00a0 I personally like the look of the later B-17G model, which, among other things, had a chin turret with two .50 caliber machine guns added underneath the nose.\u00a0 But some very iconic B-17s that flew during the war, including the Memphis Belle, were earlier E or F Models, which didn\u2019t include this chin turret.\u00a0\u00a0 So, I\u2019ve designed both nose styles and the builder can choose which model they prefer.<\/p>\n

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For the color scheme, I decided to go with a B-17G that served in World War II called \u201cA Bit O\u2019Lace.\u201d It\u2019s a unique color scheme with its natural metal finish and bright yellow tail.\u00a0 For initial test flights I didn\u2019t completely paint all the details in case of a total catastrophe, but I at least wanted to add the yellow portions for better visibility in the air.<\/p>\n

I designed all of the windows (and the B-17 has a bunch of windows) with a 0.5mm recess, so they have a natural border for paint to remain in.\u00a0 I found it difficult to paint the windows with nice, crisp lines using a brush, so I settled on using paint pens.\u00a0 This process was pretty enjoyable and made me feel like a kid again, just trying my best to color within the lines.\u00a0 The resulting windows came out with nice, crisp edges.<\/p>\n

The aluminum-colored paint holds shadows well, so it really makes the panel lines and little scale details pop.\u00a0 I still need to paint some the details, like the turbochargers, in more realistic colors, but seeing the crispness of these little details, even in the plain, base silver color makes that extra CAD time put into designing these details all worth it.<\/p>\n

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With the wings attached the size of this model is impressive.\u00a0 It is 1\/15th<\/sup> the size of the full-scale B-17, which brings its wingspan to 83\u201d, or about 2.1 meters.\u00a0 With the batteries mounted as far forward as possible, it balanced perfectly, with no added weight, bringing the final flying weight to just under 5,500 grams, or about 12 pounds.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t be happier with the resulting look of my B-17.\u00a0 But good looks were only half of the goal with this project.\u00a0 If it didn\u2019t fly, and fly well, I was afraid I\u2019d walk away from this project unfulfilled.\u00a0 Check out the YouTube video linked below to see the results.<\/p>\n

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