A pair of students at the University of Virginia posted a YouTube video of a “printed” plastic turbofan engine. The video led to a summer job designing a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the Army. They used what’s called three-dimensional “printing,” a technology that produces actual objects, such as aircraft or engine parts, using a machine that traces layers of molten plastic in shapes defined by computer drawings.
Steven Easter and Jonathan Turman, both third-year engineering students at the university, signed on with Mitre Corp. for a three month project designing the UAV, which has a wingspan of six and a half feet and cruises at 45 mph.
