by Navy876, published
Created by popular demand!
The Airbus A320 family consists of narrow-body, commercial airliners manufactured by Airbus. The family includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, as well as the ACJ business jet, which I do not intend to model. The A320s are also named A320ceo (current engine option) after the introduction of the A320neo. After a few weeks of hiatus from modeling, I am planning on adding the A320neo package on as a quick print, which the primary upgrade being the engines.
I have traditionally stayed away from modeling Airbus aircraft. Aside from the fact that I have not flown on the Airbus to the extent I have on Boeing products, I disagree with the Airbus cockpit design. Such a reliance on automation does relieve a considerable amount of crew workload, yet opens the risk of complacency and the loss of stick and rudder skills. I could go on about this subject (and have written term papers on it) but that's for another venue.
This model was the first one to be built with intermeshing parts based on the Aircraft model, instead of simple pegs and slots. The foreward and aft portions of the fuselage are varied in size based on your desired model. As the A320 family is designed to be very similar across all platforms, indeed the centerbody, wings, engines, nose and tail are all the same (with the exception of the tail height on the A318). This will allow you to print once and customize whichever model you prefer. This also made designing it a breeze, as all four aircraft were built simultaneously, thanks to the components feature of Sketchup (although this did take some experimenting with in order to ensure the parts were scaled accurately to the real model). This model has been in the works for a month now, as it was caught in the middle of a big move down to Florida.
As always, if you have any questions let me know!
Version 1.0.0
Printer Brand: MakerBot
Printer: MakerBot Replicator (5th Generation)
Rafts: Yes
Supports: Yes
Resolution: 0.1mm High Resolution
Infill: 10% 0.4mm Diamond (fast)
Notes:
Directions: Step 1: Print the A3XXset file. This will give you the engines, wings, wing fences, nose, and tail. Step 2: Print whichever model you would prefer (A318set etc.) to get the fuselage components, which vary by model number. CHEERS!!
The reference photo which worked for all of the models.
