Fun with MAXshot/EXAscan – Digitizing “The Racer” Fuselage Posted by betterlivingthroughcnc on March 31, 2012 · 3 Comments

Last week we were up in Reno, doing among other things, a digitization of a plane that is simply called “The Racer.” The Racer is an as of yet unfinished Unlimited Reno racer. It’s pretty much the smallest plane you can build around a Wright R-3350, which is still a pretty big plane. The Racer is the brain child of Dave Cornell, the current crew chief of Rare Bear. It’s been a 23 year, on again, off again labor of love, and now it most definitely seems to be on again. We’ll be doing a whole range of projects on The Racer, starting with a new canopy plug. The current canopy doesn’t come down far enough, and so a new plug needs to be made. Rather than do it by hand, we’re going to take the scanned data, create a perfected T-Spline surface and then CNC machine a new plug. After that we’ll be re-lofting the aft bottom fuselage, and making all new form blocks. Then maybe some cowling ducts. And some canopy skirts and frame. And drag strut braces. You get the idea – there’s a whole host of projects we’ll be working on, which is great, cause this thing is really, truly cool.

The fuselage digitizing was our first real chance to use the new MAXshot photogrammetry setup. I’m happy to report that the MAXshot worked flawlessly. The through process is very much the same to using the EXAscan, but covers a much larger area more quickly, and more accurately. Here’s some pics from the scanning process:

Here’s a screen shot of the capture session for the right side of the fuselage:

For the straight lofted panels we just scanned the perimeter – no need to scan every square inch when you can get all the data you need from the edges. James will be up in Reno again this coming week to scan the wings. We’re really excited to be working on such a cool project!