Aug.23, 2012
"We want more people to safely and quickly build and fly their own airplanes."
MakerPlane, the first open source aviation organization will allow people to download its plans for free to enable people to "build and fly their own safe, high quality, reasonable cost plane using advanced personal manufacturing equipment such as CNC mills and 3D printers."
According to Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), an average build time of an aircraft from kit is between 1000 to 3000 hours to build an aircraft. A lot of failures are related to overly complex building techniques, poor instructions and lack of support. Therefore MakerPlane wants to create an environment where the overall cost of ownership of an aircraft is as low as possible and the instructions are simple so people can completing building up aircraft from kit.
The project will also include open source avionics software to enable state-of-the-art digital flight instruments and display capabilities.
Basically we are designing an aircraft that can be built on a computer controlled mill at home, or at a makerspace which is easy to assemble and quick to build. The plans and instructions will be available for free to anyone that wants them!
Makerplane group is working on its first set of plans, it is expected that the design will be complete within the next 12 months. A flying prototype is expected at AirVenture, Oshkosh in 2014.
Using Vectric Cut3D, we slice the 3D STL file into manageable pieces to create a large model.
(Images credit: Makerplane)
The video below is an interview of Makerplane founder John Nicol, telling a bit of his background as well as what MakerPlane is all about.
Source: Makerplane via Boing Boing
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Meus amigos, quem viver verá, os próximos dez anos prometem coisas..., até a eternidade!
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