A plane you can print by Paul Marks:
In rapid prototyping, a three-dimensional design for a part – a wing strut, say – is fed from a computer-aided design (CAD) system to a microwave-oven-sized chamber dubbed a 3D printer. Inside the chamber, a computer steers two finely focused, powerful laser beams at a polymer or metal powder, sintering it and fusing it layer by layer to form complex, solid 3D shapes.
Polecat is a new unmanned plane: “About 90 per cent of Polecat is made of composite materials with much of that material made by rapid prototyping.”
More information on 3d printing from a manufacturer of the printers. Not quite ready for in home printing of say a new can opener on demand but can that day really be far away?
This is an interesting blog you’ve got here; I just found it last week, when I was writing about Polecat on my blog AeroGo. I thought you folks might be interested.
The first post was about the P-175 in general:
http://www.xanga.com/AeroGo/510321696/polecats-flying-cars-and-skunk-workx.html
The second was about LockMart’s use of the rapid prototyping approach and its potential, both in general and for aerospace in particular:
http://www.xanga.com/AeroGo/511717517/the-downloadable-future-aircraft-kit.html
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