KC-135T Edition 3 announcement!

My KC-135T Profiles Edition 1 & 2, aircraft 60-0337 "City of Spokane" are now complete! Now, I'm starting work on Edition #3 which will complete my profile for this particular serial number. The 3rd edition will be "Maintenance" and it will show this aircraft undergoing heavy, detailed inspections and maintenance. I'm thinking of heavy maintenance like a Periodic Inspection (PE) where flaps are lowered, spoilers are raised, panels removed, and engine cowlings open and boom lowered. Also, I would have the cargo bay and crew entry hatch and over wing hatches open. So there's a lot of work to build an interior in 2D. I'm creating these in Photoshop with many layers. So far, my KC-135 profile is 7.16 GB in size at about 48 x 24" at 400 ppi resolution, which is huge! It has over 913 layers with 27 Groups! It's very complex. So with this maintenance piece, I expect that number to increase dramatically. I have been and continue to do research and I'm relying on some memory as well as I used to work on my jet during these periodic inspections and help jack up the jet, remove and reinstall panels, open cowlings, lower the boom, and fix things while the jet was being inspected. 

Here's a good image of what this level of inspection looks like:
Image credit: The 92nd and 141st Maintenance Squadrons and the 92nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron work on the last periodic inspection of the year Dec. 9, 2015, at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash. During the initial phase of PE, panels are removed from the jet and Airmen look for discrepancies. Approximately 1,200 maintenance actions are found and completed throughout every PE. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Mackenzie Richardson) Public Domain.

And if you'd like to check out a video about this kind of inspection on the awesome Stratotanker, see: 

Edition 1

Edition 2

StratoArt.com

In my last post about my profile art, I mentioned the release of edition-1 of my KC-135T profile illustration.

Today, I'm working on edition-2 which features the KC-135 Stratotanker flying with boom extended. This isn't merely just a copy of the previous piece with the boom lowered. There's quite a bit that I need to develop for this second edition. 

For instance, the wings on large aircraft like the KC-135 flex when flying and so I have to consider this when developing this next part of my profile art of the KC-135. The KC-135 has a significant wingspan of 130 feet, 10 inches. Wing flex is designed into the wings of aircraft like the KC-135 and many large military and commercial jets. Wings are designed to flex to improve aerodynamics, reduce stress on the aircraft structure, and provide a smoother ride for passengers. This flexing is a normal and designed-in feature of aircraft, allowing the wings to adapt to changing airflow and turbulence. 

In addition there are areas behind the wing in my profile art that I need to create that weren't visible before. I had to develop the dual APU exhaust area more as the outer wing flexing upward would reveal more of this area.

For the boom area, I needed to cut and reposition areas where the boom pivots downward during a aerial refuel operation. This is an area that I had to inspect quite a lot during my days as a crew chief on the KC-135. I also need to create the boom shock absorber and the cable that lowers and raises the boom from the fuselage. Where the boom is extended, I need to create the fuel nozzle and the fluorescent markings that are seen on it. These markings are illuminated by two small black lights that are housed up in the shroud area at the end of the boom.

For now in this work in progress update, I have begun to illustrate the flexed wing and I've hidden the gear for flying mode. I've also cut and repositioned the boom for refuel ops. This is a work in progress at the moment, so the refuel shaft or pipe if you will is just a temporary block of grey at the moment. I also needed to reposition the ruddervators. On a KC-135 Stratotanker, ruddervators are small, movable airfoil surfaces located on the end of the refueling boom. They are controlled by the boom operator and used to precisely guide the boom into position for aerial refueling with another aircraft. The ruddervators are crucial for the KC-135's ability to perform its primary role as an aerial refueling tanker. Since they are, in essence, like wings, they do move or pivot on their axis in accordance with the Boomer's controlling them from the boom pod. They Boomer literally flies the boom in position for the refuel operation.

I am using both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop to produce this profile art.

Below are some screen captures of my work in progress on Edition-2 of the KC-135.