Whats the best way to attack this. (Deepfligh submersible RC replica)

[Vassi_solutions]

For more than 10 years this company and their submarines have really intrigued me.
It´s basicly a plane flying under water. No balast tanks to fill. It´s probably the coolest submarine you will ever see.

To improve my 3D building skills in shapr3d and just for the fun of it I would like to model a 1:10 RC model of it. But I´m not really sure what´s the best aprouch is.
All I have are pictures with the corect lenght . I scaled them to be 640mm in length (the real length is 6,4meter)
I tried to trace both top view and side view, extruded and combined and and then fillet the edges. But It wasn´t happy with it.
I gues maby loft is the way to go?

Here it is in action:

GoPro: DeepFlight Submersible - Searching for Whale Song

Here is an old video of the Inventor Graham Hawkes himself explaining the ingenious concept behind it.

Underwater Flight with Graham Hawkes - KQED QUEST

And here is someone who had the same idea as me and made a rc replica

RC Deepflight Aviator Berlin-Mariendorf 22.9.2018

RainbowFish DeepFlight Super Falcon 3 RC Model

[McD]

Another company is https://www.uboatworx.com/
I test drive one of their subs several years back. I had high hopes of buying one, and putting into commercial operation off the coast of California. However, the Jones Act, and US Coast Guard regulations pretty much prevent such an operation for a non US made submarine. .

[McD]

[Gelphyn]

@Vassi_solutions
Nice project.
Tools > Loft is definitely the tool of choice.
The images show a mix of Models, for accuracy shots from the rear will be useful to better determine the Cross Section Profiles from as many areas as possible. Close up shots of the Wings, Tailplane and Fin would help, again emphasis is on the Profiles.
Looking forward to seeing your creation.

[TigerMike]

I agree that Loft would be the best way, however that is assuming you have profiles at various positions along the fuselage. If you do not, here is another method as there are many ways to create shapes.

Here I created a top view sketch using a spline and mirrored it so it is symmetrical. For the side view sketch I used 2 splines as the top profile is different than the underside. Extrude the top view downward, then extrude the side view body horizontally, then select Intersect to create a new body. Do a fillet radius at the corners and you have contoured fuselage. Again, this is one way and it may or may not suit your need for an exact replica. Hope this helps.

-Mike

[Vassi_solutions]

It´s a start

[TigerMike]

I’d say it is a very good start!
Good luck.

[JST]

The guided loft, would be great tool for this…

[Vassi_solutions]

Yes that´s the way I did it… I did run into some issues with getting the correct fillet though. (Since the top and bottom fillet intersect.
I had to cut the front off and model it by itself.
But then It wouldn´t union. But I will turn that into a locking mechanism instead .

[Vassi_solutions]

Btw here is a concept I drew in 2016 of a drone that could fly both in the air and under water (inspired by deepflight)

[fredlef]

Cool but not the coolest I’ve ever seen given how much of my life was spent punching holes in the ocean on 637 and 688 class fast attack submarines.

[Vassi_solutions]

[drakermann]

Can you post your reference images? I’d like to run a test and report back with your exact dimensions if you don’t mind

[Vassi_solutions]

[Vassi_solutions]

Shape is down… now the function is the next step

[Gelphyn]

@Vassi_solutions
Nice update, any chance of a Side View?

[Vassi_solutions]

[Gelphyn]

@Vassi_solutions
Very impressive. Thank you very much.

[tommyn]

Nice! Reminds me a bit of this:

www.ottoaviation.com

Best,

Tommy

[Vassi_solutions]

First try on a USDZ .

New Project 2.reality

Any good way to share USDZ files?
This forum doesn’t support it and dropbox wasn’t really good for it either

deepflight.step (3.8 MB)