Will 3D printing manufacture the aircraft of the future?
Postgraduate researcher Chris Paulson has impressed academics and industry experts with his innovative research into increasing the efficiency of aircraft models produced by 3D printing.
His 20 minute talk at a competition during a Royal Aeronautical Society conference of 50 unmanned aircraft systems specialists was voted the best and he won the £1,000 prize. Chris took a small scale 3D-printed aircraft to London to show delegates exactly what he is working on while he described both his theoretical research and practical experience of flying the planes.
"I became interested in 3D printing while working at Xerox PARC in California
following my undergraduate degree in astrophysics at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC)," he explains. "I read a New Scientist article about the exciting research in 3D printed unmanned aerial vehicles at Southampton, which led to my PhD studies with Andras Sobester and Jim Scanlan."
He believes 3D printing could prove invaluable in designing and testing new aircraft as it is a flexible technology and relatively inexpensive. "Through 3D printing, you can produce quick and easy functional aircraft that can be used in conjunction with computer simulations to understand how new designs fly," he says.