Aurora Flight Sciences in Manassas, VA has been developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for both the civil and military markets for nearly three decades. However, with advancing customer needs and requirements, its research and development center is utilizing Stratasys 3D printing technology more frequently for production parts and tooling to help bring new innovations to unmanned flight. Recently, engineers at Aurora and Stratasys embarked on an ambitious project: to build a jet-powered, thrust vectoring, blended wing body, remotely piloted aircraft.
“Nobody has ever done anything like this,” said James Berlin, an Additive Manufacturing Research Engineer at Stratasys. “For us, it was going into the unknown. We wanted to push these materials and additive processes to find new limits.” It was the use of a 22lbf (98N) jet engine and thrust vectoring mechanism that would help push the envelope due to the high speed and inherent maneuverability it would allow the aircraft. “There is still the stigma that 3D printing is a prototyping technology,” says Berlin. “But this is not a desk model that will break if you touch it, this is a 150mph jet.”
