Re: 3d printed ultralight airship

I too am thinking about building an airplane with the help of a 3D printer and a CNC router but I don't know that you could ever get to the point of printing an airframe, bolting an engine to it and rolling it onto the tarmac. However, if we could figure out a way to 3D print polyurethane foam, it would be a good day for the aviation industry, especially for home builders (like me). I'm sure you're all familiar with the conventional process (painstakingly shape a foam mold, wrap in it glass, sand, wrap again, sand again, etc) but you might be able to cut construction time in half if you could start with a printed foam mold and it would produce far less waste to boot.

Sadly, I haven't heard of anyone 3D printing foam, yet... In the mean time, the lattice idea might work as a suitable mold for composite construction. The only problem I can see with the lattice is that it might limit your options as far as construction method. Namely that you would probably be stuck with the 'moldless' method wherein you produce a non-loadbearing shell, wrap it in whatever composite cloth you choose to produce an exoskeletal 'skin.' Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that method but in my opinion exoskeletal airframes won't fail quite as gracefully as something with an internal, loadbearing frame with non-structural formers and skin. At any rate, I'll have to continue looking into this.