Making an FPV 1.8m Airliner #1

Hi, now this is going to be a long project, and i am going to make "probably" weakly updates. In this tutorial, I will show you how to make the basic blueprints for the airplane using Google sketchup. 

To start, you need to find the airplane you want to build. You need pictures from above, the side, and some good all around pictures of the airplane. Google will most likely have all the pictures you are looking for. The airplane i am going to make is the Dornier 328 (The turboprop version)

The reason i picked this one, is that it is a small airplane, meaning that the cockpit windows are relatively bigger than the ones on a Boeing 747. And since i am going to fpv it, i need big windows.

Okay, starting the sketchup process. You need to download it here: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/index.html Install it, and pay attention when you start it up.  you can chance the Template, meaning if you want it in meters, millimeters, or inches and feet.  it is easy and you only need to do it ones.

Then you press "Start using Sketchup" and you will be ready to use the excellent program. 

The next step is to make a grid, just to give you a reference to what you are dealing with.

Use the pencil to draw lines from one point to the other. Use the hand to drag your image an arrow globe thingy to move around. you will get the hang of it after some use. Zoom in and out by using your mouse scroll wheel.

I made my grid 4x4 and deleted the inside by pressing on it, and pressing delete. 

When you have made the grid, it is very important that you triple click it, highlighting it all in blue, right click on it and choose "make object" Just name it something random. this will help allot, rather than drawing it, you will be drawing "on it" that way it won't interact with other lines. 

Then you import you side view picture. Make this first, you will need to make a center line later. To do this, go to "File" in the top corner and press import, find the picture and press enter.

Remember to choose "all supported image types"  

 Now you have to outline the airplane from the side using these to tools. 

The circle on will make you able to do rounded lines, which will benefit allot.

Tip: if you cant see the line you are drawing on the picture, look underneath it)

 after you do that, move the picture out of the way, and delete the grey inside part.

Now, to make the build easier, straight lines are allot easier to work with. pretty much all commercial airliners have a round tube middle part. and making a tube is easy. But if you look at the top part where the wing would be, it has little bends in it. it will make allot of trouble. so you need to make it straight.

Draw a line straight through it, and remove the curvy part. and while you are at it, outline where the wings and in this case landing gear will be. then remove those parts as well.

Now you have a nice clean look, outline where you want your canopy to open as well. since it is going to be FPV, i really wanted to have a big easily accessible cockpit for my pan/tilt system.

Now we move on to the top of the airplane, the technique is basically the same. 

When you import the picture, make sure to make the size from nose to tail the same length from nose to tail. Then you outline it. 

Now, that's done, move it on to the horizontal stabilizer. This is a little more complicated, you have to only use the scale elevator as base. You have to enlarge it about 20 % and ad the elevator fin(s). when doing large scale projects like this, use dual elevators. Don't make you control surfaces to small either, the larger the better.

 That is it for this article, The next step will be constructing the wings. Make sure to check it out, it will be published shortly (1 or 2 days) Hope you like it.

Basically, this is the boring part, the fun part will be actually building it ;)