3D printed unmanned airplane built by engineering students
3D printed unmanned aircraft that is built using 3D printing technology initiated because of the development of a plastic turbofan engine by University of Virginia engineering students’ sounds very interesting. As a part of the Mitre Corporation’s (McLean-based defense contractor) plan to build an unmanned aerial vehicle two interns; Steven Easter, his brother and lab partner Jonathan Turman from the University of Virginia applied for this interesting project. They got help from Professor David Sheffler (U.Va. Engineering School alumnus and aerospace engineering veteran with 20 years of experience) in building the aircraft having 6.5 foot wingspan and other parts made completely from 3D printed parts in layers of plastic. According to Sheffler to make a turbofan engine to scale using traditional manufacturing methods would have cost around $2,50,000 but with 3D printing it cost only $2000.
The test flights were also conducted in the month of August and early September at Milton Airfield near Keswick achieving an average speed of 45 mph although the nose piece was damaged in doing so but later on replaced with a new one. 3D printing job for the airplane was done using the 3D printers in the Engineering School’s Rapid Prototyping Lab allowing the students to design and print the parts exactly how is intended to.