Dwarfed by huge jets all around, the mini-plane Thor was nonetheless an eye-catcher at the Berlin air show this week. The small Airbus marvel is the world's first 3D-printed aircraft.
Windowless, weighing in at just 21 kilos (46 pounds) and less than four meters (13 feet) long, the drone Thor, short for -"Test of High-tech Objectives in Reality-" resembles a large, white model airplane.
Yet to the European aerospace giant Airbus, the small pilotless propeller aircraft is a pioneer that offers a taste of things to come in an aviation future when 3D printing technology promises to save time, fuel and money. -"This is a test of what's possible with 3D printing technology,-" said Detlev Konigorski, who was in charge of developing Thor for Airbus, speaking at the International Aerospace Exhibition and Air Show at Berlin's southern Schoenefeld airport.
-"We want to see if we can speed up the development process by using 3D printing not just for individual parts but for an entire system.-" In Thor, the only parts that are not printed from a substance called polyamide are the electrical elements.
The little plane -"flies beautifully, it is very stable,-" said its chief engineer Gunnar Haase, who conducted Thor's inaugural flight last November near the northern German city of Hamburg.
