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AIRCRAFT

3D-printed aircraft debuts at Berlin air show

Dwarfed by huge jets all around, the mini-plane Thor was nonetheless an eye-catcher at the Berlin air show this week – the small Airbus marvel is the world’s first 3D-printed aircraft.

Published: 5 June 2016 17:03 CEST
3D-printed aircraft debuts at Berlin air show
The little plane “flies beautifully, it is very stable,” said its chief engineer Gunnar Haase. Photo: Courtesy ILA Berlin Air Show

Windowless, weighing in at just 21 kilos and less than four metres long, the drone Thor – short for “Test of High-tech Objectives in Reality” – resembles a large, white model airplane.

Yet to the 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 International Aerospace Exhibition and Air Show at Berlin’s southern 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.”

In Thor, the only parts that are not printed from a substance called polyamide are the electrical elements.

The little plane “flies beautifully, it is very stable,” said its chief engineer Gunnar Haase, who conducted Thor’s inaugural flight last November near the northern German city of Hamburg.

Airbus and its US rival Boeing are already using 3D printing, notably to make parts for their huge passenger jets the A350 and B787 Dreamliner.

“The printed pieces have the advantage of requiring no tools and that they can be made very quickly,” said Jens Henzler of Bavaria-based Hofmann Innovation Group, which specialises in the new technology.

The metal parts produced can also be 30-50 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 future Ariane 6 rocket of European space agency ESA, 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 may have half the price tag of its predecessor Ariane 5.

The new 3D printers can make pieces up to 40 centimetres long and is 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 AFP.

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 think tank of the German Green Party.

3D printing is certain to play a major role in this, he said at a conference at the ILA event with Airbus president Tom Enders.

The air travel industry is already convinced of the benefits, according to a survey of some 102 aviation sector players by German high-tech federation Bitkom.

Some 70 percent of respondents believed that by 2030 aircraft spare parts will be printed directly at airports, and 51 percent expect that entire planes will by then be manufactured by 3D printing

AIRCRAFT

Has a Lancaster bomber been discovered under Denmark’s seas?

A World War 2 aircraft may have been found at the bottom of the sea near the Danish island of Langeland.

Published: 16 September 2019 12:25 CEST
Has a Lancaster bomber been discovered under Denmark’s seas?
Photo: Foto-VDW/Depositphotos

The aircraft, discovered in waters off the southern tip of the island, could be a Lancaster, a British bomber used during the 1939-45 war.

Denmark’s Navy has issued a temporary ban on diving, fishing, sailing or anchoring in the area due to the possibility of live ammunition being amongst the wreckage, vice commander of the Royal Danish Navy’s diving unit Bo Petersen told Ritzau.

“We received a civilian report that a diver had seen what looked like the wreckage of an old aircraft. It is probably a Lancaster bomber down there. The diver said there were also objects that could be bombs. We are responding to that,” Petersen said.

The vice commander stressed that the identity of the airplane was yet to be confirmed.

“We can’t go out and check what we’ve been told because there is too much wind and high waves,” he said on Sunday.

But a Navy diving team would be despatched at the earliest possible juncture, he added.

In a tweet, the Danish military confirmed investigation would take place “in the coming days”.

“We’ll dive down to the wreckage and conduct a thorough investigation of the surrounding area for ammunition. We will thereby be able to state whether the area can be re-opened or whether we need to remove the ammunition to make the area secure,” Petersen said.

The Lancaster, a four-engine British bomber, was first produced in 1941.

According to British Royal Air Force figures, 7,377 Lancasters in total were made. After the war, they were used as reconnaissance aircraft until 1956.

There are now only two airworthy examples of the aircraft in the world – one in Canada and one in the UK.

Although the discovery in Danish waters is highly unusual, Petersen noted that a bomber aircraft was also found in the area during the construction of the Great Belt Bridge in the late 1990s.

READ ALSO: Danish schoolboy finds buried German WW2 aircraft and pilot

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