Abstract
The manufacture of experimental aerofoil sections to a specific profile is generally an expensive and time consuming part of aeronautical research. This paper describes a computer aided manufacturing procedure that has been developed for the production, in a small research engineering workshop, of experimental wing models required for investigation of the separation of flow from an NACA 4412 aerofoil section. A 2 1/2 axis CNC vertical milling machine has been programmed with coordinates generated by computer from the NACA 4412 defined profile, to produce aerofoil sections which are then built up into a wing model.
The method is fast and accurate, enabling the time and cost of manufacture to be substantially reduced, at the same time improving the accuracy and quality of the model. The procedure has been developed as a computer program and is also used as a case study teaching aid in computer aided manufacture.
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