#392 - ION Mod Idea by coonsgm

[coonsgm]

I saw this contest and thought about combining my passion for my career working with aircraft engines and computers (I work for GE aircraft engines). The GEnx engine has a beautiful composite fan blade...the black blade surface with the metallic leading edge.

For a more detailed description with some animation and descriptions...click on the FAN section to see the blade itself.

[web]http://www.geaviation.com/education/theatre/genx/[/web]

I could easily see a single blade with the ION board in the base mounted vertically with outlets and buttons on the side of the airfoil surface.

Cheers

[Boddaker]

Neat idea! What are the blade's dimensions? Just wondering if the ION board could fit inside that shape if it was to scale. Then you wouldn't really need a huge base for it.

[coonsgm]

You would want to scale the blade down by at least 75% or so. The blade length is on the order of 40"-50". The full diameter of the "wheel" of blades is 111".

I wasn't clear about the positioning. At the base the airfoil is a few inches thick. Therefore, if you scaled the total length of the blade down and but maintained a bit of thickness near the bottom (the base / root of the airfoil), you ought to be able to fit the ION inside airfoil shape.

I think I'm too used to using engineering jargon that I take some descriptions such as base or root of the airfoil as a given.

[coonsgm]

So I'm not the most capable sketch-up user...great tool though. Given that the actual shape isn't exactly what you'd replicate, here's my best put at some pic's and dimensions.

You should be able to just carry the shape a little further down toward the bottom and fare out the base to provide more internal space from about 2" thick in the center to about 4" thick and providing a less curved area in which to place the ION and any ports. USB and audio ports might be fun to have on the top surface of the airfoil shape.

Things such as LED's could be strategically placed to up the curved shape to emphasize the curvature (the coolest part of the shape).

Given the 6.7" x 6.7" size of the ION, the height of 18" and width of 12" should be adequate.

top down view


front view


Side view