3-D printed airplane successfully takes test flight

 Researchers have successfully built and flown an unmanned aerial vehicle, using 3-D printing technology.

Engineering students from the University of Virginia posted a YouTube video of a plastic turbofan engine they had designed and built using 3-D printing technology.

Executives at Mitre Corporation, a McLean-based defence contractor, saw the video and sent an announcement to the School of Engineering and Applied Science that they were looking for two summer interns to work on a new project involving 3-D printing.

Only one student, Steven Easter, then a third-year mechanical engineering major, responded to the job announcement. Easter got the assignment to build over the summer an unmanned aerial vehicle, using 3-D printing technology.