3D Printed Ornithopter Wings. Researchers at the Cornell Computational Synthesis Laboratory building a miniature ornithopter (that's a flying device that uses flapping wing motions for lift) had a problem: the wings were difficult to create due to their small size and mechanical requirements.
The problem was solved by using 3D printing techniques to create the wings. The 3D printing approach also was substantially faster than previous methods: "reduced the time of a wing design cycle to a matter of minutes".
3D Printed Fiberglass. Flying a 3D Printed Airplane - Fabbaloo Blog - Fabbaloo. 3D printed parts have been in production aircraft for some years now, but what about printing an Entire Aircraft?
That's what researchers Andy Keane and Jim Scanlan from the University of Southampton achieved. The 2 metre wingspan unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has both impressive design and performance: Almost 100Mph (160Kph) flight speedNear silent cruise modeEntirely "snap fit" with custom designed connections between componentsAbility to construct the plane in minutes with no tools. Design Models, Inc. - Aerospace Engineering Portfolio. The Boeing Phantom Ray - 3D Printing goes airborne.
Space Craft Parts - 3D Printing. 3D Metal Printing. Scanning Service.