FUEL, TIME AND MONEY:Metal aircraft parts created through 3D printing can be up to 50 percent lighter, which helps to lower costs and improve fuel efficiency.
Dwarfed by huge jets all around, the mini-airplane Thor was nonetheless an eye-catcher at the ILA Berlin Air Show this week — the small Airbus Group SE marvel is the world’s first 3D-printed aircraft.
Windowless, weighing in at just 21kg and less than 4m long, the drone Thor — short for “Test of High-tech Objectives in Reality” — resembles a large, white model airplane.
Yet, to European aerospace giant Airbus, the small pilotless propeller aircraft is a pioneer that offers a taste of things to come — an aviation future when 3D printing technology promises to save time, fuel and money.
“This is a test of what’s possible with 3D printing technology,” said Detlev Konigorski, who was in charge of developing Thor for Airbus, speaking at the show at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport.
“We want to see if we can speed up the development process by using 3D printing not just for individual parts, but for an entire system,” Konigorski said.
In Thor, the only parts that are not printed from a substance called polyamide are the electrical elements.
The little airplane “flies beautifully, it is very stable,” said its chief engineer Gunnar Haase, who conducted Thor’s inaugural flight in November last year near the northern German city of Hamburg.
Airbus and its US rival Boeing Co are already using 3D printing, notably to make parts for their huge passenger jets, the A350 and 787 Dreamliner respectively.
“The printed pieces have the advantage of requiring no tools and that they can be made very quickly,” said Jens Henzler of the Bavaria-based Hofmann Innovation Group, which specializes in the new technology.
The metal parts produced can also be 30 percent to 50 percent lighter than in the past, and there is almost zero manufacturing waste, added Henzler, who is managing director for Hofmann industrial prototyping.
The sky is not the limit for the technology — engineers also plan to use it in space.
The European Space Agency’s future Ariane 6 rocket, set to blast off from 2020, is set to feature many printed pieces.
“It brings big cost reductions on parts manufacturing,” said Alain Charmeau, head of Airbus Safran Launchers.
Partially as a result of this, the Ariane 6 might have half the price tag of its predecessor, the Ariane 5.
New 3D printers can make pieces up to 40cm long and are of most use in particularly complex designs.
Charmeau said Airbus is testing how to print an injection assembly for an engine that is now assembled from 270 individual pieces.
“With 3D printing, it has just three parts,” he told reporters.
Aside from the costs savings, 3D printing also promises ecological benefits, as lighter jets use less fuel and spew out fewer pollutants.
To reducing carbon emissions in aviation — with air traffic expected to double in the next 20 years — “the decisive issue is radical technical innovation in a relatively short time,” said Ralf Fuecks, head of the Heinrich Boell foundation, the German Green Party’s think tank.
At a conference at the event with Airbus president Tom Enders, Fuecks said 3D printing is certain to play a major role in this.
The air travel industry is already convinced of the benefits, according to a survey of 102 aviation sector players by German high-tech federation Bitkom.
About 70 percent of respondents believed that by 2030, aircraft spare parts would be printed directly at airports, and 51 percent expect that entire airplanes would by then be manufactured by 3D printing. |
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