🚀 go-pugleaf

Some of you who don't normally browse radio-control
publications might be interested in a short article in the
current issue of "RC Modeler" about finding and making scale
drawings of aircraft.  The author's point is that a lot of
published scale drawings, including very authoritative ones,
are way off.  Various solutions are discussed, including
ways to check scale drawings against photos, and at the end
of the piece, a computer program is offered for making
accurate scale drawings from as little as one photograph.

I think the article's main points are good, but using photos
to make scale drawings has some pitfalls not mentioned by
the author.  These are illustrated in the author's reprinted
example of a comparison of some Albatros drawings with
photos, in which I think some unwarranted inferences are
drawn from the photos and some unfair criticisms made of the
drawings.

As for the computer program, I have no experience with it
and not much information is provided in the article, but it
seems to me that the program must require the specification
of a good deal more inputs than just the outlines in the
photograph, and would be very susceptible to garbage-in-
garbage-out.

Anyway, just thought you'd like to know about the article.

August Horvath <augustho@usc.edu>