UK engineers fly printed aircraft

A team of UK aeronautics engineers have successfully flown the first aircraft made entirely with 3D printing, according to Geeko System.

Called the Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft, or SULSA, the unmanned RC aircraft aims to show that complex flying machines can be crafted quickly using this new fabrication process. Less than a week prior to its launch, the SULSA was nothing more than a pile of plastic dust.

Business Standard reports that the aircraft was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building the item layer by layer. No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using 'snap fit' techniques so that the aircraft could be put together without tools in minutes.

The electric-powered aircraft, with a two-metre wingspan, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour.

According to the Southampton researchers, it would normally take months to go from an initial aircraft concept to a flying prototype - using the laser sintering process, it could instead just take days, writes Gizmag.

Because no production tooling is required, it also costs nothing to make changes to the finished aircraft's design, or to experiment with swapping in different parts.