Fly me to the moon...well, at least over the Wiltshire Downs.

"Engineers at the University of Southampton have developed an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed, including wings, integral control surfaces and access hatches."

The plane, which the researchers call a SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) has actually proven flight capable, flying over the Wiltshire Downs, moving from the theoretical into the real. Researchers took only a few weeks to design and fabricate a flight-worthy UAV using snap-fit components on a EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine.

"The electric-powered UAV has a wingspan of about 6.5 ft, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, and runs almost silent when in cruise mode. The team even equipped it with a miniature autopilot."

Professor Jim Scanlan ( Southampton Computational Engineering and Design Research group) credits laser sintering with providing the flexibility to explore more complex design elements that would be prohibitively expensive using conventional manufacturing. 

It is interesting stuff but I couldn't help but find myself thinking of battlefield fabricated predator drones buzzing (albeit stealthily) overhead.

Read about it HERE.