Official News page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: PRINT OUT AN AIRPLANE

by Hazed

The rise of the 3D printer continues, with news this week that it has been used to make a fully functioning plane.

A team from the University of Southampton, England, printed out a 1.5 metre wingspan UAV, taking just five days to design the plane from scratch, print it out, and send it on its maiden flight. The result cost just £5,000 (about $8,200).

The scientists took their design to a company called 3T RPD, who used their selective laser sintering machines to construct a layer-by-layer representation of the CAD data.

The advantage of laser sintering is that it can be used to mould complex shapes which have proved hard to manufacture in the past. It means that you can put together a prototype of a produce - such as this aeroplane - in a matter of days, then quickly produce custom variants.

There's a video here that gives more information about the process, and also shows the finished product taking to the skies.

Fed2 Star index Previous issues Fed 2 home page