Airbus Explores building planes with Giant 3D Printers

Bastian Schafer, a cabin designer with Airbus, has been working for the last two years on a concept plane that would be built from the ground up with a 3D printer that’s very large indeed ... as big as an aircraft hanger.

"Schafer’s concept plane is also so dizzyingly complicated that it requires radical manufacturing methods: from the curved fuselage to the bionic structure, to the transparent skin that gives passengers a panoramic view of the sky and clouds around them."

In this Forbes article, the vision is set against the reality of today's 3D Printing possibilities."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/07/11/airbus-explores-a-future-where-planes-are-built-with-giant-3d-printers/

BioPrinting in 3D

The world seems to be getting very excited about the potential of 3D printing biological tissues, parts and even complete organs. In one video, Professor Lawrence Bonassar at Cornell has demonstrated a process in which a 3D Printer and a 'living ink' is used to re-create cartilage in any scanned shape, e.g. matching a unique human ear. In another fascinating story, bioprinting innovator Organovo has created the world's first commercial 3D Human Tissue BioPrinter.