The jet engines you can make at home

How 3D printing could help create a new generation of jet engines

Jet engines have to be immensely powerful, but reliable enough to move us around safely – and building them is a laborious and expensive task.

That could change in the future, however, if the work some Australian researchers are doing is anything to go by.

They have made the world’s first functional, jet engine using 3D metal printing. 

They dismantled an old jet engine – similar to the kind used on Boeing and Airbus airliners – and scanned its components.

Professor Xinhua Wu, director of the Monash Centre for Additive Manufacturing, says the technology could be used to build prototypes and customised components far quicker and more cheaply. She says it could also pave the way for people to build their own customised aircraft.

BBC Future spoke to Wu – watch the video above to see just how the engine’s intricate parts are created.

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