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Watch On The team started out with their first miniature prototype, the Kinglet, made out of PETG, PET-CF, and some PLA. It didn’t use a jet turbine yet, opting instead for an EDF (Electric Ducted Fan) as a safe and low-cost way to iterate. The Kinglet used a modular design to rapidly prototype the aircraft in sections and replace any broken parts without needing a whole new body.
Once the Kinglet had reached a level of performance the team was happy with, they moved on to the Kingfisher, measuring just under a meter, propelled by the Jetcat P60, a miniature jet turbine engine capable of 63 N · m of thrust, reaching a top speed of 205 mph (330 km/h). The Mach Initiative stated that this engine is not powerful enough, nor is it intended to break the record, aiming solely to achieve flight with a jet engine. The team had to make some major design changes from the Kinglet due to the larger size and much higher forces the aircraft would have to endure. The Kingfisher is still also made mainly out of PETG, with the housing of the engine out of annealed PET-CF. The engine is held in place by aluminum hardware, with the rest of the aircraft being reinforced by an aluminum skeleton.
The engineers initially intended the Kingfisher MK2 to be the aircraft that would house a 150Nm jet engine to break the record, attempting to hit 614 mph (988 km/h), leaving the world's fastest electric drone (434 mph) in the dust. However, they decided to make a new aircraft that was 20% larger than the Kingfisher and called it the Kingchaser, with significant changes to the design.
The 20 lb (9 kg) Kingchaser still uses mostly PETG for its external construction, but instead of annealed PET-CF for the engine housing, they switched to PPS-CF, as annealing the larger housing caused warping, possibly due to uneven heating. The PPS-CF is also skinned with a few layers of carbon fiber, further reinforced with aluminum and steel to mount the engine. They also put titanium exhaust sheets and aluminum tape to shield the print from the engine’s heat. The aluminum skeleton running through the PETG body has also been replaced with carbon fiber rods instead to save more weight and use fewer custom-CNC machined parts.
Othisis test-fires 3D-printed, fully cryogenic reusable rocket engine
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/worlds-first-3d-printed-remote-control-aircraft-with-a-jet-turbine-takes-flight-aims-for-mach-0-8-to-beat-world-record-for-fastest-model-aircraft-mostly-printed-using-standard-petg-materials#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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