PROCESS

After watching the film Porco Rosso in April of 2019, I was inspired to design a retro-styled, VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) seaplane model out of balsa and basswood. Despite having made details drawings for parts and assembly, I did not have the time to work on the project. 

This project resumed in December of 2020 with some initial design changes. I wanted to design the plane such that its ability to take off vertically would appear believable. The original design would have additional propellors in the rear stabilizer to ensure enough thrust to lift the plane out of the water vertically. 

The plane was modeled using Shapr3D. After several iterations, proportions were adjusted, the wing was relocated above the cockpit and the rear stabilizer reduced to a single propellor. Several different colorways were also explored, often using virtual reality to place the model at scale in real life. 

Further iterations added a transparent portion of the wing to increase the visibility to the pilot. The design that was 3D printed had counter-rotating propellors, a retractable landing gear, and included a tail with a rear propellor. 

However, it was only until the model was completely assembled that I noticed the tail was proportionally too large and visually heavy. The tail was subsequently redesigned and reprinted to what the plane looks like currently.