The printed world
Three-dimensional printing from digital designs will transform manufacturing and allow more people to start making things
FILTON, just outside Bristol, is where Britain's fleet of Concorde supersonic airliners was built. In a building near a wind tunnel on the same sprawling site, something even more remarkable is being created. Little by little a machine is “printing” a complex titanium landing-gear bracket, about the size of a shoe, which normally would have to be laboriously hewn from a solid block of metal. Brackets are only the beginning. The researchers at Filton have a much bigger ambition: to print the entire wing of an airliner.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “The printed world”
From the February 12th 2011 edition
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