3D Scanning of Hangar Produces Aerospace Art

Boeing engineers using a handheld scanner have produced 3D scans of their factory in Everett, Washington with the goal of producing maps that robots might eventually use to efficiently locate automated machinery. As a side benefit, the Boeing Technical Fellow in charge of this work finds the images to be quite stunning on their own and akin to something you’d find hanging in a museum of modern art.

3D scan of Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington. Image from Boeing.

News in Brief

• McGill University professor Wagdi Habashi is to be awarded the National Order of Quebec for his work in CFD.
• The abstract deadline for the International Society of Grid Generation 2012 conference has been extended to 15 June.
• CFD Online has created new online forums dedicated to the CFD postprocessing software Avizo Wind, EnSight, FieldView, ParaView, and Tecplot.
• CFD is included in the new technical handbook from Xylem Inc. titled Flygt Handbook of Sludge Pumping.
• Zeus Numerics released CFDExpert-Lite, an affordable version of their CFDExpert product.
• Kansas’ Baldwin High School won the Real World Design Challenge. Their winning entry for a light sport aircraft was analyzed using Mentor Graphics’ FloEFD.
• CFD, Formula 1, and Marussia F1.
• Renault used CFD for the aerodynamics of their Alpine A110-50 concept car which generates one-third of its down force from ground effect.
• Of course, Sierra Nevada Corporation continues use of CFD on their Dream Chaser spacecraft, designed to transport astronauts to the ISS.
• There’s an interesting blog post on whether or not CFD is an exact science.

More Droplet Photography

Dark Roasted Blend brings us this gallery of artful photographs of liquid droplets.

Dew-Soaked Dandelions by Sharon Johnstone. Image from Dark Roasted Blend.