{"id":8092,"date":"2012-10-22T22:01:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T06:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/?p=8092"},"modified":"2013-01-07T20:40:22","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T04:40:22","slug":"what-can-you-make-with-a-3d-printer-how-about-an-airplane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/2012\/10\/what-can-you-make-with-a-3d-printer-how-about-an-airplane\/","title":{"rendered":"What can you make with a 3D printer? How about an airplane?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yup.\u00a0 A very cool project. A airplane made using 3D printing only. (I’m guessing this is san motor through).\u00a0 So we have cars, guns, and now a plane.\u00a0 I would really love to see this released as a kit.\u00a0 How cool with that be? Download a 3D airplane kit and add motor.\u00a0 Here is an except from University of Virginia engineering<\/a><\/p>\n

Three-dimensional printing is, as the name implies, the production or \u201cprinting\u201d of actual objects, such as parts for a small airplane, by using a machine that traces out layers of melted plastic in specific shapes until it builds up a piece exactly according to the size and dimensions specified in a computer-aided drawing produced by an engineer.<\/p>\n

In this case, the engineers were Easter and Turman, working with insight from their adviser, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor David Sheffler, a U.Va. Engineering School alumnus and 20-year veteran of the aerospace industry.<\/p>\n

It was a daunting project \u2013 producing a plane with a 6.5-foot wingspan, made from assembled \u201cprinted\u201d parts. The students sometimes put in 80-hour workweeks, with many long nights in the lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sort of a seat-of-the-pants thing at first \u2013 wham, bang,\u201d Easter said. \u201cBut we kept banging away and became more confident as we kept designing and printing out new parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheffler said he had confidence in them \u201cthe entire way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The way eventually led to assembly of the plane and four test flights in August and early September at Milton Airfield near Keswick. It achieved a cruising speed of 45 mph and is only the third 3-D printed plane known to have been built and flown.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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