AST/FAST Illustration and Blower Scavenging

Aug 08, 2011
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Getting Into It
by: Tim Hickox

I know that illustrations would be helpful. Someone has suggested that animations would be better yet. I must make it clear that I had no intention - within this context - of telling anyone how to design and/or build a FAST engine. It's really very complicated to explain, even when I'm talking to experienced engineers.

A big part of the communication problem is that the whole scheme is in 3D, but drawings are in 2D. Any engineer or machinist will tell you that it takes a lot of 2D drawings, and sections, to "explain" a complex 3D model. And it takes quite a lot of training for anyone to piece together - in the mind - a bunch of 2D views and "see" what the real thing is like. In this case, even if you have the ability to do this, that picture of the whole machine will not help you much to understand how it works.

I just haven't found an effective way to get this across, except by sitting down with a good engineer and going through it bit by bit. It seems to help if one has a PHD in mechanical engineering!

AST/FAST Illustration and Blower Scavenging

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AST/FAST Illustration and Blower Scavenging