First Design Idea

 So I played around with the Lazarus fairing design to see if I can make it shorter (click on image to enlarge). I think we can recess the both wheels into the fairing and place the rider in a much more laid back riding position and have the rider straddle the front wheel as well. This will allow us to make the canopy much smaller and reduce the fairing height even further. Stay tuned...

So how did I get here?

I graduated from Cal Poly in 1998 with dual degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering. I was part of the Cal Poly HPV team in 1994 and 1997-98. My senior project was the design and fabrication of the composite fairing for the Prestissimo bike.  So I present some of  the work I did. After working on the 1994 team and spending all that  time helping to build a plug I asked myself what if we machined the molds directly without the need for a plug in the first place? So my idea was born. I turned it into my senior project. I did some research on bodies of revolution to come up with a fairing design. I machined scale models of the fairing molds as a proof of concept. This was fun work. I learned how to operate the Fadal VMC that the manufacturing department had. 

Machining of the Ren-Shape scale mold.

Both Re-Shape scale molds

There was just one problem. How was I going to get full scale molds machined? At that time Cal Poly didn't have a mill large enough to machine such large pieces of foam. Well, HPV guru, George Leone, suggested that we contact Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA. One of George's friends worked there. So through George's contact I wrote a letter asking Scaled Composites if they would be willing to machine our molds. And they said yes! That was a major coup for the Cal Poly team. As you can see the foam molds came out really nice.

The right side full size foam mold!

I couldn't believe that my project was becoming "real"!

Now the real work started as we prepared the molds for the wet layup process. We spent quite a bit of time working on the molds. I have fond memories of spending many hours in George's barn on cold and rainy nights! It was a blast, really.

Sealing the mold surface with polyester resin.

Applying Duratec primer to the mold surface. 

Getting ready to do the wet layup!

This was the very first part we pulled out. Success!I learned quite a bit about composites building this fairing.

First composite part made is a success!

The fairing is coming to life.

I was happy how well the fairing came out. 

Here are some photos at the 1998 ASME Collegiate HPV championships. We did quite well. San Joaquin Delta College also did well. I liked their fairing but their bike was very unstable.

At the 1998 ASME Collegiate HPV Championships on Denver, CO.

The winning bike and the Cal Poly HPV Team.

Mechanical 3D CAD Software galore!

As some of you I am a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry. Over the years I have used several well known 3D CAD programs like Pro/ENGINEER, Solidworks, I-DEAS, and AutoCAD.  What do all these programs have in common? They are extremely EXPENSIVE! Our team can't afford to purchase any of these programs. Now most of these programs have "student" versions that are rather low cost. These are basically stripped-down versions of their commercial verisons which means that a significant amount of functionality has been stripped away. Plus many of them have licenses that expire after a year of two. That just won't do. So searched the Internet to see if there are any free 3D CAD software available in cyberspace. To my pleasant surprise there are quite a bit of free open source 3D CAD programs most of which I have never heard of. Some of the following that caught my eye and may have potential to be our design software include:

BRL-CAD

BRL-CAD is a powerful cross-platform Open Source combinatorial Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) solid modeling system that includes interactive 3D solid geometry editing, high-performance ray-tracing support for rendering and geometric analysis, network-distributed framebuffer support, image and signal-processing tools, path-tracing and photon mapping support for realistic image synthesis, a system performance analysis benchmark suite, an embedded scripting interface, and libraries for robust high-performance geometric representation and analysis.

For more than 20 years, BRL-CAD has been the primary tri-service solid modeling CAD system used by the U.S. military to model weapons systems for vulnerability and lethality analyses. The solid modeling system is frequently used in a wide range of military, academic, and industrial applications including in the design and analysis of vehicles, mechanical parts, and architecture. The package has also been used in radiation dose planning, medical visualization, computer graphics education, CSG concepts and modeling education, and system performance benchmark testing among other purposes.

PowerSHAPE-e

A fully functional, 100% free, CAD solution. Featuring state-of-the-art surface creation and editing, PowerSHAPE-e allows you total design freedom, giving you the tools you need to create exciting 3D forms effortlessly. Achieve the perfect balance between form and function using PowerSHAPE-e’s unique blend of surface, solid and triangle modelling.

Autodesk123D

123D is a free solid modeling software program based on the same Autodesk technology used by millions of designers and engineers worldwide. Not an engineer? No problem, with Autodesk 123D you can design precise and makeable objects using smart tools that let you start with simple shapes and then edit and then tweak them into more complex shapes.

Blender

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

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These are just some of the 3D CAD software that I came across. I'm sure there are many more. I look forward to researching many other CAD programs.