3 ms·
It would be a pretty simple exercise to develop very lightweight fairings for this frame. Clearly it wasn't a consideration in this proof-of-concept design, so
by ThenAsNow 10y ago
It would be a pretty simple exercise to develop very lightweight fairings for this frame. Clearly it wasn't a consideration in this proof-of-concept design, so it doesn't make sense to consider this as anything more than a sign as to where things are going. It looks like they used topological optimization with some set of load cases analyzed through typical Finite Element Analysis codes. If they had wanted to, they could also have factored in aerodynamics in their optimization procedure, with either a shell type of approach if they wanted to make the whole thing 3D-printed metal, or with a separate fairing.