[SMF] Bombardier Global 7500

[Nobricksleft]

Hello,

first time posting here on Eurobricks. Been lurking on the Star Wars forums for years (I love the drama), but my main interest is aviation and I finally have a decent MOC to share.

I recently started to experiment with Stud.io and decided to make a desktop model of Bombardier's Global 7500. This aircraft means a lot to me since I was involved in its design and certification for 10 years.

I set out with 2 goals:

• make a model to be similar in size to the wooden replicas so many aviation fans display in their offices, cubicles and home. 
• have a detailed interior that would showcase the aircraft cabin layout.

General exterior view:

70 studs long by 66 wide by 18 high (with the landing gear).

I absolutely did not want stickers for fuselage windows, so the stud spacing between them ultimately determined the final scale. I could have used SNOT techniques that would have looked better but it would have compromised the interior volume.

Pretty happy with the cockpit windshield, less with the nose. It looks sleek but generic. The G7500 nose points downward more and I am still trying to improve it. Ideas?

With the top fuselage removed:

The fuselage door can be opened and has built-in "stairs" like the real thing.

The full interior is there in micro details: cockpit, galley, forward lavatory, crew rest, lounge, dinner table, home theater, bedroom, aft lavatory with shower and luggage section.

Aft view:

I had many iterations on the wing. I decided against SNOT because I felt it would look too thick at the tips. All wing surfaces can move except for the spoilers. The Global 7500 has split ailerons but for aesthetic reasons, I made it as one large surface (they move together 99% of the time IRL).

There is a technic beam in the wing root that slides into the fuselage at a 3 deg angle. This is critical to make the model look realistic. Minifig skates are used for the flap tracks.

I did struggle with the vertical stabilizer because its shape makes the aircraft recognizable, so I had to get the angles right. It made the internal structure quite ugly so I ended up covering both sides with tiles. Another area I could improve in the future.

The design of the horizontal stabilizers is pretty straightforward. They both move around a technic pin. Elevators and rudder position can also be adjusted.

The engine nacelles and turbofan:

The challenge here is the exhaust cone. It has a shallower taper angle on the real aircraft but I simply could not find a design that would have a clean look (same dilemma as the nose).

However, using the 4x4 cone did give me the opportunity to incorporate the turbofan design, revealed my swinging the upper panel up: fan, low and high pressure compressors, fuel nozzles, high and low pressure turbines.

Finally the landing gear can be removed for flight display. The stand has some pitch and roll adjustments as well. This view shows the curvature of the belly fairing (lower fuselage), which is also an important identification feature.

When installed, the main landing gear attaches to the technic beam to transfer the load to a thick fuselage/wing box. The aft fuselage connection is also reinforced. Unless you pick up the model by the wing tips, it should feel pretty sturdy. Time to build the physical model and validate my assumptions (gotta order parts first)! I also plan to make instructions for it.

I have submitted this project on LEGO IDEAS so please support if you like it. We need more non-generic LEGO aircraft models! 

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/edbaca4b-b39a-4e8f-88d0-14873f8a101f

I really enjoyed the experience and I'm already thinking about the next aircraft to build at as desktop model. Any suggestions apart from the usual suspects?

[Jurss]

I like the detailed engine. That is a nice thing.

[proran]

Wow, wow, wow! Being a Canadian aerospace engineer I just cannot stop smiling at this thing. It is absolutely beautiful!

I agree the nose shape of all Global's is very distinctive, and the model doesn't capture that completely, but I doubt it can be improved. Angled cones are very hard to work with in Lego.

But the rest of the shapes are spot on for me! Especially the nacelles and the vertical stabilizer. The aft view is just gorgeous. It's unmistakably the Global! I am swapping my desktop image form Falcon 6x to that!

And special kudos for the turbofan, that is a cherry on top. I work on turbofans for business jets, so seeing this in a Lego model just made my day! I need to show this to a colleague of mine, who worked on certifying that plane too.

Can't wait to see in real bricks!

Edited December 10, 2021 by proran

[Gray Gear]

Looks awesome! Did you do any testing with real bricks during the design? Especially the wings on large aircraft like this have a tendency to bend or be unstable, which cannot be felt while building digital only.

[Jeroen Ottens]

Brilliant . It shows that you don't need to build planes at minifgure scale to get exquisite detailing. The opening nacelles with turbofans is just great. These kind of details really bring the model to the next level.

[Nobricksleft]

17 hours ago, Jurss said:

I like the detailed engine. That is a nice thing.

 

7 hours ago, Jeroen Ottens said:

Brilliant . It shows that you don't need to build planes at minifgure scale to get exquisite detailing. The opening nacelles with turbofans is just great. These kind of details really bring the model to the next level.

Appreciated guys. I went full aviation geek on the turbofans and color-coded the different sections. It's a shame I couldn't integrate the thrust reversers. Together with the flaps and spoilers it would have been nice for displaying the aircraft in a touchdown configuration.

I will probably design a small assembly that can be swapped with the 4x4 truncated cone to show the reversers deployed. 

 

8 hours ago, proran said:

Wow, wow, wow! Being a Canadian aerospace engineer I just cannot stop smiling at this thing. It is absolutely beautiful!

I agree the nose shape of all Global's is very distinctive, and the model doesn't capture that completely, but I doubt it can be improved. Angled cones are very hard to work with in Lego.

But the rest of the shapes are spot on for me! Especially the nacelles and the vertical stabilizer. The aft view is just gorgeous. It's unmistakably the Global! I am swapping my desktop image form Falcon 6x to that!

And special kudos for the turbofan, that is a cherry on top. I work on turbofans for business jets, so seeing this in a Lego model just made my day! I need to show this to a colleague of mine, who worked on certifying that plane too.

Can't wait to see in real bricks!

Thanks, this means a lot coming from someone who knows and works with bizjets. I tried tilting the nose cone slightly down but I couldn't make a smooth transition to the forward fuse. 

My cherry on top is taking over the 6X on your background (Dassault made a nice machine).

 

9 hours ago, Gray Gear said:

Looks awesome! Did you do any testing with real bricks during the design? Especially the wings on large aircraft like this have a tendency to bend or be unstable, which cannot be felt while building digital only.

Very good point, full physical build is my next step. I have used real bricks to test some concepts like the nose and wing root, but as you say you can't "feel" digital build. I don't trust the analysis tool in studio. I considered many scenarios for strength like having the model on the gears, on the stand, picking the model up by the fuselage and so on. The wing downbend will be interesting because it happens on the real aircraft as well, especially sitting on the ground with full fuel. The whole wing then bends up during flight.

 

I'll post my progress here. Thanks for the feedback. Cheers.

[Nobricksleft]

Hello all,

finally got around to finish the physical build.

The stability and stiffness of the wing and wing/fuselage connection are very good (I guess those several digital re-designs paid off). Another unexpected bonus of using curved slopes on top of long plates for the leading edge is that it bends the wing slightly upward, similar to the way lift does on the real aircraft when flying. The only issue here are the winglets that rotate too easily.

The aft fuselage was another story. While the center fuselage is kept stiff by the cabin sides acting as I-beams, the aft fuse connection was using only stacked plates internally. It wasn't not enough to keep the tail from sagging, even before I put the engines on. I ended up adding a connection linking the studs on side of the curve wedges (below the tail) to the aft fuselage. The horizontal stabilizer connection to the vertical fin is the only section I'm still not happy with strength-wise  (suggestions welcome please).

I was hoping the model would balance when sitting on the main gear but it's a little too tail heavy. A small stand about 1 cm behind the wheels does the trick. I wish LEGO made compact weighted bricks.

Next step is designing decals to detail the model (since I recently got acquainted with using Part Designer). I was thinking of doing the Netjets livery first. I'll leave you with a shot of the interior with top fuselage removed. Cheers.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by Nobricksleft

[zoo]

Very cool build! Well done. Like the detailed engines. Nice machine. Every celebrity's dream? :)

[Nazgarot]

This is amazing for the scale!

Exeptional build, very nice technique, and a full interior to boot!

Very well done to realize this in a physical build!

_ED_

[Nobricksleft]

On 2/27/2022 at 12:57 PM, zoo said:

Very cool build! Well done. Like the detailed engines. Nice machine. Every celebrity's dream? :)

Much appreciated. Celebrities can afford flying in one while we can only dream of building this model!

 

On 2/27/2022 at 3:35 PM, Nazgarot said:

This is amazing for the scale!

Exeptional build, very nice technique, and a full interior to boot!

Very well done to realize this in a physical build!

_ED_

Thanks for the kind words. The physical build was fun because you test and verify the assumptions made during the digital design phase.

Here's a few pictures of different liveries I have been working on.

 

Netjets

 

Bombardier

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Nobricksleft