B-17 Shark Tail drawings

A dedicated forum to getting a B-17C back in the air.
Post Reply
User avatar
DryMartini
Posts: 640
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Contact:

B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by DryMartini »


Finished the latest drawing recreation.

From this:
Image

To this:
Image
-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team
jmkendall
Posts: 219
Joined: Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:01 pm

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by jmkendall »

Great Work! That sort of work is tedious but necessary!

Joe
aerovin2
Site Admin
Posts: 899
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2004 9:03 pm
Location: Lincoln, California
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by aerovin2 »

Amazing. What a difference and a different perspective than normally seen on the airplane. Cool.
Scott Thompson
Aero Vintage Books
http://www.aerovintage.com

"The Webmaster, More or Less"
partschaser
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:29 pm
Location: Central New York

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by partschaser »

This really is impressive. But what I find more interesting is that the original was done by hand by some draftsman. Imagine doing all the drawings for a B-17 by hand! Rows and Rows of draftsmen at their tables laboring over one part at a time.

Looking at the drawing, I see a line that seems to indicate the break between the inboard and outboard wing panels. Is this really the seperation line or an artifact of the draftsman? Is there a large difference between the C/D model wings and the E and later wings?

Nice work Bill,
Bill K
User avatar
DryMartini
Posts: 640
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by DryMartini »

partschaser wrote:Looking at the drawing, I see a line that seems to indicate the break between the inboard and outboard wing panels. Is this really the seperation line or an artifact of the draftsman? Is there a large difference between the C/D model wings and the E and later wings?
The C/D wing has structural differences (mostly material thickness),
but the planform is the same. The line between the inner and outer
panel is a little off in the drawing, but I kept it there to be true to the
original.
-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team
User avatar
DryMartini
Posts: 640
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by DryMartini »


Just another quick glimpse at the slow moving B-17C project.

Image
-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team
User avatar
DryMartini
Posts: 640
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by DryMartini »


Per a request.
Close up of the B-17C fuselage drawing.

Image
-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team
Lucky 13
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 4:22 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by Lucky 13 »

Bill E-mail me this drawing
Keep the show on the road.
384thBG
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:12 am

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by 384thBG »

Hi Bill, what was the process used to create the cleaned up clean drawing? Did you do it yourself or did others help you? Who is printing the super large sheet of the fuselage elevation for you? - thats expensive!
Sorry if you've written about this before, just post the link if its easier. I'm familiar with some of this clean up process using scanning, re-drawing and printing in my work as an architect.
Thanks, Chris Wilkinson
User avatar
DryMartini
Posts: 640
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by DryMartini »

Hi Chris.

I'm using Photoshop to pull in the drawings, stitch them together,
clean/sharpen them up, and then redrawing them line by line in some cases.
I'm terrible with autoCAD, as I never had a class or a mentor to show me
how to draft parts, and in most cases, I'm recreating am assembly, and
not a single part.

A friend has access to a 36" paper roll plotter. Otherwise, it is quite expensive.

:-)
-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team
User avatar
beast44k
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:31 pm
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by beast44k »

I'm in the sign business and we use a program that works similar to cad.
You may price out large format digital prints on vinyl, it's overkill, but it will be more durable and it can be used later for a cool display.
384thBG
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:12 am

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by 384thBG »

DryMartini wrote:Hi Chris.

I'm using Photoshop to pull in the drawings, stitch them together,
clean/sharpen them up, and then redrawing them line by line in some cases.
I'm terrible with autoCAD, as I never had a class or a mentor to show me
how to draft parts, and in most cases, I'm recreating am assembly, and
not a single part.

A friend has access to a 36" paper roll plotter. Otherwise, it is quite expensive.

:-)
Woof! thats a huge amount of work scanning, erasing and stitching. The file sizes must be astronomical. Boy, you need access to a large scanner. But if it works, don't fix it. I've used the same approach to save an old drawing, but added the step of importing the scanned sheet jpg into AutoCAD to trace it. If your project needs AutoCAD software or any assistance with the software send me a note.
User avatar
DryMartini
Posts: 640
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by DryMartini »


If you are offering to draw a few parts in AutoCAD,
I have the parts for you to draw.

:-)
-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team
User avatar
DryMartini
Posts: 640
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Contact:

Re: B-17 Shark Tail drawings

Post by DryMartini »


Just showing that work continues. One finds some really interesting stuff when going through
information like this. I should write a book sometime.

B-17C Skin installation info
Image
-Bill
B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat" Restoration Team
Post Reply