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Might want to buy the expensive filament for flying
They should have not gone with the default 15% infill
but the PLA came with the printer for free! Might as well use it!
This is why you don’t download a plane!
The part, which was 3D-printed, softened and collapsed
I thought people into avionics were kinda smart. Like there’s no way the person with enough knowledge about the geometry and fastening fitment to print one of these, couldn’t have known about the material shortcomings. I hope he’s sees the inside of a jail cell for a little while. Not terribly long, but still they could’ve killed someone and likely will if they sold more of these.
They bought the part & the seller told them it was ABS (melts at 90°~100°C), but it was PLA (~50°C). The og part was made from fiberglas (~80°C).
Gunna nerd out right quick.
Even if the og part was fiberglass, it would have to be have a binder to hold it together(which is usually epoxy resin).
But even then!
ABS is still a temperature sensitive polymer, deposited in layers!
The only 3d printing that could hold up reliably would be lithography via resin with a rising “bed” and extended curing (forgive me for not using the correct terminology, I’m an old school 5 axis CNC operator that’s still learning about the new stuff)
Nothing that could fail catastrophically under stress should be used in the aeronautical industry.
Yes!
The nerds in the linked comments nerded out about that too - with fibre materials construction matters (the weave if you won’t), it’s not just about the material.Oh fuck! I wasn’t even thinking about the cross pattern! I’m a failure…
Edit: or extrusion manufacturing!
Could’ve been diy.
Not trying to sound rude, but I know it’s going to come off like that. But if dude is a pilot, than they are definitely into aerospace, and should’ve known better.
But it is stated in the title that they bought it at a show. So it is very doubtful they bought it from themselves.
Surprises me how someone who can put themselves at the mercy of nature and a hobby that ‘can’ be danger prone and still be crazy enough to cheap out on this. The amount of people who decry regulation and tbh common sense in this case is astounding. At best it’s their own life at risk. At worse the lives of others on the ground or on onboard.
I agree general aviation is heavily regulated and unfortunately expensive but that’s due to cases just like this. The pilot will have know there was a chance of risk here. Even a defective bolt can have an impact. It’s the same story as the sub… hmmm the part could be not up to standard but I’ll take a chance because I think it should be ok…it wasn’t. The pilot is lucky to be alive.
That first line of the second paragraph reminds me of my favorite training regurgitating of the line “safety regulations are written in blood.”
I don’t care how many times you’ve heard it! You’re going to hear it dozens more!!!
Dumb kids are my bane.
Ephebophiles are kind if delusional though, and do like planes. My money is on one of them being involved.
I am so very confused about that first word. At first I thought I meant someone sexually attracted to planes or the like, and got excited I was one of the lucky 10k today. Then I looked it up.
Please clarify for me. Are you saying the pilot or seller is attracted to prepubescent teens? Again, I’m just genuinely confused.
They call themselves ‘libertarians’
Dunno who down voted you. But besides not answering my question directly, you correctly described most neo libs to a capital T.
What is with fuckers with money and doing weird sex shit‽
Not to worry, I got you back at 1 at least.
smart
This seems like there must have been like… 30 levels of checks and protocols to prevent anything like this from happening. How does something like this even occur
When we say aviation is the safest mode of transport we mean commercial airliners.
General aviation is much more lax both due to some people’s attitude and lack of resources.
Pilot and mechanic here. I’m American but this will apply in other countries too, just change to your language’s acronyms.
On aircraft with standard airworthiness certificates, there’d be at least two people going to prison over this. Standard aircraft require approved parts that are identical to those the aircraft was manufactured with, or any modification from the original design must be done either under the signature of an aeronautical engineer, or much more likely per a Supplemental Type Certificate. If you want to put different sun visors in your Cessna 172, the manufacturer of those new sun visors has submitted paperwork with the FAA and gotten them to issue an addendum to the aircraft’s type certificate to include that modification, which then must live with the airplane’s logbooks for the rest of eternity. Getting that STC comes with some engineering and testing work, which obviously wasn’t done here. If this were an aircraft with a standard airworthiness certificate, the person who sold the part, and the person who installed the part, have committed federal offenses.
This seems to be an Experimental Amateur Built aircraft, which is a Special airworthiness category and class. Most of the rules are out the window and basically anyone can do anything they want to with it, it’s “Experimental.” In exchange for limits on what the aircraft can be used for, generally Experimental aircraft cannot be used for commercial purposes, flight training of other than its owner, etc., the maintenance, inspection and sources of parts requirements are greatly relaxed. If they’d installed one 3D printed from a plastic with a higher glass transition temperature, there’d be an article somewhere praising this excellent application of this cutting edge technology.
Well, the article said it was a 3D Printed part bought at an airshow. Which I imagine is like a gun show, and you can buy as many add-ons as you want from individual people.
I would question whether or not they used high Temperature filament, like PETG or something better, Or if that shit is just thick PLA.
But I do agree that there should be 30 levels of checks and protocols to prevent anything like this from happening. I think if you attach something to the exterior of your airplane, it needs to be made by a manufacturer who knows what they’re doing.
I read through the report. The pilot believed it to be carbon fiber reinforced abs, which should have had a higher weakening temp than the stock fiberglass part. Apparently it didn’t though. They don’t identify the actual material in the report.
Well, the pilot was lied to. That is definitely not carbon fiber On top of ABS. You can see where the print is falling apart. I’m certainly no expert, but that poor photo in the article definitely looks like a cheap piece of shit… Relative to what I imagine aircraft parts are like normally
“carbon fiber” filament usually has little shards of carbon fibers suspended in it. This makes the part less flexible than raw ABS…when cool. It’s not like they do a layup of carbon fiber over 3D printed ABS, that would almost defeat the purpose.
If they’d done that, 3D print a mold or buck and then do a carbon layup over it, it’d be made of epoxy, which doesn’t melt.
This was part “only” meant to funnel air into the engine, so I could see why he wouldn’t think it would be a problem. And I think it’s more like the carbon fiber impregnated abs, than coated. I paraphrased the report, so that’s on me.
Anyone worth their weight in abs knows “carbon fiber impregnated abs” isn’t going to actually do a FRACTION of the job that literal carbon fiber—or even fiberglass—would do, and this pilot is lucky they didn’t kill someone.
It just goes to show how little people know about carbon fiber and how easily Tricked they are when someone says they mixed carbon fiber into melted plastic… Laughing my fucking ass off
It’s not the strength they were worried about, it was the temperature at which it weakend, which shouldn’t have been a problem according the the information provided to the pilot.
I don’t know the material data sheet was wrong or the person selling it to him was wrong or lying. We don’t and won’t know, because they didn’t try to identify it.
But I do agree that there should be 30 levels of checks and protocols to prevent anything like this from happening.
I don’t. General aviation is already overly expensive as it is; we don’t need to create even more barriers to entry by trying to hold homebuilt light airplanes to the same standards as commercial airliners.
Remember: this incident is newsworthy because it’s unusual. Changing policy based on it is a hysterical overreaction.
Okay, deal. But if a person uses an unregulated part and it kills someone by flying off it-the pilot is beheaded
“Bought at an air show.” Read: flea market booth.
Gun shows but tall.
I thought they were, like shows.
This used to happen to crown vics that cops would dog the shit out of, but it would “warn” ahead of time because the intake manifold would sound like a really shitty harmonica.
I learned this because my friends dad was a mechanic for the police and came home one day while we were smoking a blunt and made us lose our god damn minds from paranoia, then we got to go for a ride in a cop car while stoned.
Its a home built plane from plans (not even a kit)
Get AI to design the 3D-printed part.
AI fixes all! /s
