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| Big projects to simple ideas |
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Trike plane
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The inspiration for a combination trike airplane ultralight came while I was in Elmwood Correctional Facility. Ride a Harley, go to jail, welcome to Santa Clara county. This first version had a beam backbone that the rider straddles. The concept is a flying car, but one where you detach the wings and tail at the airport, so you can drive the trike around town before returning to the airport.
 I also drew up a low-wing version. It has a canard and does not look like I intended it to be a flying car, I can't remember which I drew first. The yellowing means jail did not give out acid-free paper. |
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 Three more sketches expand on the backbone design, and show a V-twin motor to power the plane. The main structure is a C-channel with mounting plates attached. Also added is a lady on the back, tandem fashion, like a motorcycle.
Another sketch shows two ducted fans instead of a simple propeller. The fans should be quieter and its safer to have the spinning bits shrouded by the ducts. Might be a high-wing
A sketch of the ducted fan with a low-wing.
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 February 1991 sketch of a low-winged design using guy wires for structure and roll cage. 
December 1991 biplane design to lower the stall speed and create a box structure.
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 . In February 1992 I used a 2D print of two human profiles to establish the overall size. I have put in a proper roll cage. There is a windshield, as evidenced by the "wiper" call-out in the dash area. It also looks to have provisions for air conditioning from the little side-sketch. This version is a mid-wing with a conventional pusher propeller as opposed to ducted fans. The V-twin engine has given way to a Volkswagen Beetle power-train for the rear wheels. I think I planned on taking power from the tail housing of the VW transmission to drive a belt up to the propeller.  A single-seat version with the VW drive-train. A fer lines with a ruler, sketches are one reason I was an early adopter of CAD. I first saw a pen plotter when I was an engineer at Ford motor in Dearborn. It was drawing an F-sized sheet metal drawing. The guy demonstrating it noted it used a 12-cent Bic pen. In 1987 I bought a PC to do schematics. |
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 April 1992 study of puller vs pusher.  |
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 April 1992, grappling with the power transmission problem, Adding a differential for the axle and the prop. 
July-1992, putting a V-twin in the front with a long drive-shaft back to the propeller. High-wing with cage.
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 August-1992 study with two shrouded propellers. 
November-1992 VW drive-train, mid-wing. |
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 AutoCAD plot from August 1994, no fenders, blocked out human forms.  The best thing about plots is you can red-line them. 
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 Another August-1994 check-plot of the ergonomics position of rider and passenger. 
A plan view of the seating position. This is still using some rough block manikins I made from a 2D profile of human dimensions. |
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 A rear-view of the seats from August 1994.  Back to the old 2D figures, for a check plot.
With the block figures with the arc uprights to help viability. |
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 Replacing the block figures with purchased mesh mannequin figures.  Side-view with the nice manikin figures.  This is an undated odd-ball sketch showing a different structure for the aircar. |
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 This is an early sketch of the VW drive-train.  The early sketch showing the rough dimensions of a VW Beetle drive-train that I built into the CAD model. Even in 1994, 3D CAD was helping engineers visualize design problems, allowing some solutions to come to mind. |
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