Technical drawings Cessna 337F Skymaster?

[Marcel]

I don't know if this is the right place, but I thought I would give it a go.

My name is Marcel and I am a fourth-year Aviation Engineering student at the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. Currently, I am doing my graduation internship at DEAC (Dutch Electric Aviation Centre) at Teuge airport in the Netherlands (the link to the website is at the bottom of this email). DEAC is an organization that was founded to gain knowledge and experience with hybrid and electric flying for general aviation (GA). The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to meet the agreements that were made with the Dutch government. The national ambition is that by 2030, 15% of all flight movements of GA in the Netherlands will be electric. In addition to the CO2 reduction, it is also about making GA planes quieter.

In 2019 DEAC bought a 1973 Cessna 337F Skymaster to use this as a test aircraft. The Skymaster is very suitable for electrification because the two engines are in line with each other. My graduation assignment is to program the Skymaster into the Merlin simulator at our university. I have to verify that the simulated model is flying almost exactly the same as the real aircraft so that changes (for example swapping one of the piston engines to an electromotor) can be made in the simulator to predict on forehand how the aircraft performance will react to these changes.
If the simulated model flies exactly the same as the real aircraft and if there is determined that the model is reliable, then this would have a lot of advantages for DEAC. The first advantage is that the model can help to substantiate when a change to the aircraft needs to be certified for test purposes. Then there can be shown that the change is already tested in the simulator so that it is safe to test it on the real aircraft. Another advantage is that the model can help future students with their assignments. When the student wants to test/verify any of the changes he/she is working on, this model can be used to see what impact it has on the flight performance.

Now one problem occurs. DEAC does have the POH with its amendments and the aircraft manuals, but we do not have any technical drawings with all the dimensions of the aircraft. To program the Skymaster in the Merlin simulator, I need these dimensions. Now my question is if there is maybe someone who has these drawings and is willing to share these with me. Of course I can go to the actual aircraft and measure them myself, but I first want to try it in this way because a manual is way more accurate.
It would help me a lot with my graduation research!

If there are any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

The link to DEAC their website: https://deac-teuge.nl/

[kbecker]

Please see the attached from the maintenance manual

Kevin

[JAG]

Hi Marcel,
Great and exciting work you are doing. Many of us have been watching with interest what you and the team have been doing over there - and very proud that a Skymaster has been chosen.
Maybe a few questions: - what dimensions exactly are you looking for? You mention "all the dimensions" - but could you possibly get a little more specific, for example, length of wing, or looking for length of aileron, flap, rudder, etc? Do you have a maintenance manual - or do you need one of those? Have you reached out to Cessna - their technical help desk is just great to deal with and maybe would provide you some things that people here may not have.

Anyway - let us know the answers to the above questions and this could help streamline any responses that may be coming your way.

All the best on the simulator development!

Regards,
Jeff

[Marcel]

Thank Kevin!

Thanks for the positivity, let me substantiate my previous message a bit.
The basics as which are mentioned in the Pilot Operating Handbook are known. For example the aircraft length, the wingspan and the height from the ground to the top of the tail. I am also looking for the more detailed dimensions. For example:
- Distance from the tip of the wing to the aileron
- Length x width of the aileron
- Dimensions of the horizontal stabilizer
- Elevator length at the root and at the tip
- Width of the elevator
- Dimensions of the vertical stabilizer, so at the root as well as at the tip
- Dimensions of the rudders
- Distance from tip of the (front) propeller to the nose landing gear
- Distance between the nose and main landing gear
- Etc.
These are the kind of dimensions I am looking for. In the upcoming weeks, I will be visiting the aircraft to measure all these things myself, but I think it would be good to have reference information to be a bit more precise.

We also have a service manual, but there are not many details about the dimensions mentioned. These are more in-depth about how the ailerons are attached to the wing and how the pulleys work. So every other document that can maybe help is welcome.

I have contacted Cessna several times, but I don’t get much of an answer. I will keep trying haha.