Engineers build 3D printed jet engine

Engineers at GE Aviation have made a 3D-printed mini jet engine that operates at 33,000rpm.

The jet engine was built as a side project by a team of technicians, machinists and engineers employed at GE Aviation’s Additive Development Center in the US.

They are said to have built the engine over the course of several years to test the technology’s abilities and to work on a side project together.

According to GE Reports, the team couldn’t build the complexity of a whole commercial aircraft engine into their working model so the got plans for a simpler engine developed for remote control model planes. They then customised them for their 3D printing machines. Their final product measures around a foot long by about eight inches tall.