Simple Lofting Steve Griffiths offers a proven method of creating accu- rate fuselage former shapes Figure 1, Similar Triangles in Lofting = “a metmangies 1's rare that a scale drawing has on it all the sections needed to develop fuselage formers for and working out the shapes can be a bit of a hassle. I's ‘even worse when you come to put the fmodel together and find that, ike a ‘Sumo wrestler, is skin doesnt fit. [use simple process to approximate the ‘outlines of formers that { want to put between given sections and it works well enough for me. There is however a limitation, in that it won't work along a length of fuselage where there is significant discontinuity in outline, as it relies upon there being a fairly smooth transition between one siven section and the next. ‘The method described here is most casily accomplished if you can use a scanner and a drawing or image-manipa- lation package or computer-aided design (CAD) software on a PC, but is quite practicable even with peneil and paper, ‘when an enlarging photocopier will be a ‘great help. Whichever way you tackle it, you will probably need a pocket caleula tot ora brain better than mine, ‘The process is known as “lof from the full-size practice, along similar lines (!), of drawing out shapes full-size ‘on the floor of a“ofting shed” in order to perform exactly the same function, but I rather think my approach i alittle more suited to our kitchen-table environment. The principle on which it works is akin to that of similar triangles, a concept that you may remember from your school. ‘days if you were paying attention. For our purposes, we need consider only right-angled triangles: if such a angle (fig.1a) has a vertical drawn part- ‘way along its base to form a smaller (and in that all its angles are the same triangle, the height ofthis smaller triangle isthe same proportion of the original height as is its base to the original base (ie. X:¥ = AB), We can ‘employ this property to determine 1 difference in’ size of different stations ‘along a fuselage (fig. 1b), Where there are two given sections (oddly labelled 1 and 2) and an intermediate section is wanted 33% of the distance between them, all that is needed is to draw a line between the edges of the original sections, move 33% of the way from the starting point, and drop a vertical to the centre line. Where this meets the edge line defines the size of the section at that position, ‘Apart from this dealing only with one ‘along the surface, it also assumes that there is no curvature in the surface, a situation that is relatively unusual on full-size aircraft so it is by no means the complete answer. It docs however, | hhope, demonstrate the principle. ‘So now, to the actual practice: (1 pro- xed on the basis that a scanner and appropriate PC software are available, land you should be able to see from th ‘how the manual process would go. Start from, typically. a 1:72 scale draw ing. sean and enlarge the sections given fon the drawing. If they can be the final size needed, it will save a little resizing work later on, but for the best accuracy they should be as large as ean be man- aged and when you see the full process, you will be able to decide just how large that is for you. A pais of consecutive see tion outlines should then be overlaid in a single image and aligned on a common horizontal datum, with both centre lines ‘corresponding exactly (Lig. 28). Only one half of each section will be needed, spit vertically, so half can be deleted ({ig. 2b. There isa choice of two ways to pro- ceed at this point. I mark off and connect by straight lines each section at the same percentages of its height and depth from the horizontal (fig 3a), but an alternative is to draw lines radiating from the inter: section of the datum and the centre lin to connect the sections (fig. 3b). Both seem to work well enough, although 1 SS