Engineer, Artist, and Photographer. Edinburgh, Scotland
My background is in Structural/Mechanical Engineering and Design since 1976. I have been very fortunate in my career to have worked in the fields of Electronics, Offshore O&G, Architectural, and HVAC. I have a keen interest in historical aircraft designs, particularly the warbirds of the 2 war periods.
I was an early adopter of CAD systems; in the mid-80s, which was a progression from my experiences on the drawing board. Throughout these many years I have evolved my skills in line with the newer developments in this field, often managing projects as diverse as Pharmaceutical plants to Utility substations, Oil & Gas projects to FPSO as well as projects for NASA developing hybrid power modules for the Space Station! Today the emphasis is very much on BIM (Building Information Modelling) for which I have extensive experience, in fact actually contributed to the creation of BS1192 and is something that easily adapts well to the aircraft design environment.
But my goal is the study of historical aircraft designs and to understand the vision of those that created them; which can only really be appreciated by getting down to the work of recreating the intent of the designer. I am absolutely hopeless at any manual skills like manufacturing, woodwork or the like; just doing basic DIY is a hopeless challenge for me; but I am skilled in the fields of engineering design and CAD (2D, 3D, 4D) development work.
This blog is to share my experiences on this trip; a journal of my endeavours exploring ideas and concepts, the application of 3d cad in this environment and to increase awareness. Hopefully also to inspire others to study the remarkable work of the designers from this era.
When I am not studying aircraft design I work on designs like this one.
Please feel free to comment or drop me a line. Either use the contact form or directly at hughtechnotes@gmail.com.
Aviation CAD TechNotes 
Dear Mr. Thomson, I have watched the video “Da Vinci Bridge folio 69ar” which you uploaded on Youtube in 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9d_ltQrrEw) and then follow you to this blog. I am a Ph.D student on Architecture in TU Munich. My doctoral thesis discusses a kind of historical structure very similar with Da Vinci Bridge on folio 69ar. Your video is very inspiring! May I cite your “folding bridge” theory in my research? Have you published your theory? Could you please give me a more official resource than Youtube if you have for me to cite? I am expecting for your kindly reply and further discussion on this genial structure! Best regards, LIU Yan
P.S. I am not familiar with WordPress, to make sure you can find my E-mail address, it is liuyan06seu@hotmail.com Expecting for your kindly reply!
Dear Hugh. My name is Niko. I plan to built a 100% replica of a Focke Wulf 190 A. I have bought blueprints and drawings from various source on the net and started to transfer the data into SW. After having gone through all the plans I realized though that the data give is sometimes inaccurate or does contradict itself. The biggest problem is the wing design where I need too be as accurate as possible. May I ask which plans you have used and if you experienced the same problems. I am so much looking forward to hearing from you. Many thanks in advance. Niko
Hi Niko; thank you for your comment. I plan to update this blog with new information shortly including more information on the wing ordinates.