Aircraft Made From 3D Printing

countertrolling tips news of a project undertaken at the University of Southampton, where engineers designed and created a functioning UAV using unusual methods. Quoting: "It was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer by layer. No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using ‘snap fit’ techniques so that the entire aircraft can be put together without tools in minutes. The electric-powered aircraft, with a 2-meter wingspan, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, but when in cruise mode is almost silent. The aircraft is also equipped with a miniature autopilot developed by Dr. Matt Bennett, one of the members of the team."

Copyfight!

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

You know those anti-piracy "ads" that say something like, "You wouldn't steal a car, would you?"

I always though the obvious response was, "No, but if I could download a car and print it out for free, I sure would!"

Looks like that day is getting pretty close.

Most Interseting part

[DadLeopard]

Looking at the post about the RC Group and checking out the article and following up on Geodetic Structure, it seems to me that the ability to use a geodetic structure approach, makes this plane a whole lot better, in a way that can't easily be done by any other method. It's lighter and stronger that the normal spars and ribs used normally! It even looks like the geodetic structure is integral with the skin! Though if the wings were made all in one piece, I bet they had a tough time hooking up the linkages for the control surfaces.

Re:Most Interseting part

[fikx]

Along the same lines, does making them from one piece make them harder to fix when you crack one up? you'd have to replace the whole body I would imagine...

Re:Most Interseting part

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably not. Its pretty rare that a small plane will split at a glue joint, unless the joint is mechanically weak. The glue is usually stronger than the material. Usually you get a few cracked ribs, maybe a cracked spar. Fuselages are already made from either plywood slabs or rib/stringers. All of that is going to break somewhere, most likely away from a joint.

When you move on from traditional wood construction to composites, all bets are off. If you crash, its going to end up in pieces. Small dents and cracks can be dealt with, but that thats usually not what you end up with if you fly into trees or the ground at any appreciable velocity.

Re:Mass Production

[bcmm]

Or maybe building the entire airframe out of it is a gimmick intended to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology, but laser sintering will make sense as just another manufacturing technique, used for those parts it applies best to. For example, the press release claims that eliptical wings are very difficult and expensive to manufacture, so perhaps it would be economical to attach printed wings to an otherwise conventionally-built aircraft.