Cool Aluminum Prototype Machining photos

A few good aluminum prototype machining pictures I discovered:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: British Hawker Hurricane, with P-38 Lightning and B-29 Enola Gay behind it


Image by Chris Devers

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC:

Hawker Chief Designer Sydney Camm’s Hurricane ranks with the most critical aircraft styles in military aviation history. Designed in the late 1930s, when monoplanes have been regarded as unstable and as well radical to be productive, the Hurricane was the 1st British monoplane fighter and the first British fighter to exceed 483 kilometers (300 miles) per hour in level flight. Hurricane pilots fought the Luftwaffe and helped win the Battle of Britain in the summer season of 1940.

This Mark IIC was constructed at the Langley factory, close to what is now Heathrow Airport, early in 1944. It served as a coaching aircraft throughout the World War II in the Royal Air Force’s 41 OTU.

Donated by the Royal Air Force Museum

Manufacturer:
Hawker Aircraft Ltd.

Date:

1944

Nation of Origin:

United Kingdom

Dimensions:

Wingspan: 12.2 m (40 ft)

Length: 9.8 m (32 ft three in)

Height: four m (13 ft)

Weight, empty: 2,624 kg (5,785 lb)

Weight, gross: three,951 kg (8,710 lb)

Prime speed:538 km/h (334 mph)

Engine:Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid-cooled in-line V, 1,300 hp

Armament:4 20 mm Hispano cannons

Ordnance:two 250-lb or two 500-lb bombs or eight three-in rockets

Materials:

Fuselage: Steel tube with aircraft spruce forms and fabric, aluminum cowling

Wings: Stressed Skin Aluminum

Horizontal Stablizer: Tension Skin aluminum

Rudder: fabric covered aluminum

Handle Surfaces: fabric covered aluminum

Physical Description:

Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC single seat, low wing monoplane ground attack fighter enclosed cockpit steel tube fuselage with aircraft spruce types and fabric, aluminum cowling, stressed skin aluminum wings and horizontal stablizer, fabric covered aluminum rudder and handle surfaces grey green camoflage prime surface paint scheme with dove grey underside red and blue national roundel on upper wing surface and red, white, and blue roundel reduced wing surface red, white, blue, and yellow roundel fuselage sides red, white and blue tail flash Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid cooled V-12, 1,280 horsepower engine Armament, 4: 20mm Hispano cannons.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress &quotEnola Gay&quot:

Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the very first bomber to home its crew in pressurized compartments. Although developed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 identified its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a selection of aerial weapons: standard bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.

On August six, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the initial atomic weapon utilized in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. 3 days later, Bockscar (on show at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance climate reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Excellent Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on each missions.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.

Date:

1945

Country of Origin:

United States of America

Dimensions:

General: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)

Materials:

Polished general aluminum finish

Physical Description:

4-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish general, common late-Globe War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black &quotEnola Gay&quot in black, block letters on lower left nose.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed P-38J-ten-LO Lightning:

In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence &quotKelly&quot Johnson and his team of designers designed one particular of the most profitable twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 to 1945, U. S. Army Air Forces pilots flew P-38s more than Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Lightning pilots in the Pacific theater downed far more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Allied warplane.

Maj. Richard I. Bong, America’s top fighter ace, flew this P-38J-10-LO on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field, Ohio, to evaluate an experimental strategy of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller manage levers. However, his appropriate engine exploded in flight ahead of he could conduct the experiment.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Firm

Date:

1943

Country of Origin:

United States of America

Dimensions:

All round: 390 x 1170cm, 6345kg, 1580cm (12ft 9 9/16in. x 38ft 4 five/8in., 13988.2lb., 51ft 10 1/16in.)

Supplies:

All-metal

Physical Description:

Twin-tail boom and twin-engine fighter tricycle landing gear.

(Source from China rapid prototype company blog)