Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s an almost entirely 3D-printed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). While engaged in its countless other aerospace 3D printing endeavors, European defense giant Airbus has also 3D printed a drone, unveiled at its manufacturing facility in Hamburg, Germany, during Airbus Innovation Days 2016.
The UAV, dubbed “Thor” for “Test of High-Tech Objectives in Reality,” is a massive 4 m (13 ft) in length, has a 4-m (13-ft) wingspan and weighs 25 kg (55 lbs). Manufacturing drones isn’t new for Airbus, but 3D printing them is. Thor is made up of about 50 3D-printed parts, two electric engines and a remote control. The 3D printing process for Thor lasted roughly one month, and the production cost was estimated to be around USD$23,000 (EUR€20,000).
This short manufacturing period is a key reason behind Airbus’ decision to 3D print Thor, as the flexibility that 3D printing offers could allow designers and engineers to create new aircraft on the fly. As Peter Sander, head of emerging technologies and concepts at Airbus, explained in his Innovation Days presentation, "You can [3D] print this kind of aircraft in four weeks. It has low lead times for fast track developments."
Thor already underwent its first flight test in November 2015, flying 40 km from Hamburg to another Airbus facility in Stade, Germany. The aerospace company has further plans for 18 more test flights throughout 2016.
With Thor acting as a small test bed, Airbus hopes to demonstrate that the same flexible design and manufacturing approach could be applied to full-scale aircraft. Although Airbus’ dream of a fully 3D-printed aircraft may not be realized for some time, this methodology could be applied to the numerous 3D printing endeavors already being pursued by the company: 3D-printed fuel nozzles within its A320neo, numerous components for the A350 XWB, bionic cabin partitions, 3D-printed fuselage and engine pylon parts from Alcoa and more.