MFA-22 “Mini Raptor and XM116 Jet Engine

I’ve never been one to start on easy mode, and this project is the perfect example of that. This project began with a simple desire to design a turbofan jet engine, which was a class of technology that’d fascinated me since high school, during which time I’d designed an iron man suit and accompanying jet engine to impress a girl I’d met in my time in sports. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful, but this experience regardless resulted in an understanding of how jet engines worked on a fundamental level after analyzing endless hours of maintainance being performed on various commercial aircraft engines. The jet engine in this particular project was more of a capstone to prove to myself that not only did I understand how it worked, but also how to properly design one with a 3D printer. As a result, I concieved and designed a turbojet engine with a single bypass, two stage compressor configuration. However, 3D printing at the time was new field to me and effectively science fiction in my perception at the time, and I had no concept of how expensive it would be to manufacture the parts I needed out of metal, and how poorly the more functional plastic materials would fare under the operating conditions in which jet engines normally function. Nonetheless, this project was my first true experience flexing my intellectual muscles in part design, assembly design, and some early exposure to DFM and DFA. 

The Fighter

The larger, more flashy component of this project came as a sort of “Cherry-on-Top” for this entire project. The obvious inspiration of the MFA-22 Mini Raptor is the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and I chose to take on this project with the explicit purpose of pushing myself into CATIA V5’s Generative Shape Design (GSD) toolset, which was mentioned by the professor whose class I’d taken for the program, but never elaborated on the subject. It was appropriate, then, that I began this particular arm of the project by pulling images of the aircraft off the internet, to then begin reverse engineering, and subsequently begin tracing over on my student laptop on a plane bound from LAX to Langley Airport for a family trip to Washington D.C.. While I’d seen videos of people doing speed-sketches of cars and other random objects on youtube to prepare myself for the project, the learning curve was still enormous. Yet with time, practice, and effort, I would eventually complete the airframe and submit the project for the Official Dassault Systems 2019 Student Project of the Year design competition along with another project I’d taken on at the time. I still hold this project close to my heart as a fruitful learning experience that gained me a skill that I’ve yet to personally meet anyone that’d similarly acquired regardless of seniority and tenure, and in time, would learn to confidently master it. As a final act, however, I added a personal touch and designed a cockpit to integrate my skills in GSD and traditional part design, before exposing myself to the native Photo Studio and Animation toolsets. While admittedly less than perfect, it did allow me to explore other lesser known strengths and utilities for which CATIA can be used.