If you’re at least a casual gamer, you might have heard or played with the Protoss Carrier ship in Starcraft, the race’s ultimate airborne weapon against air and land targets. We’ll, science now takes us one step closer to build something similar in the close future - an aircraft capable of 3D printing its own swarm of drones.
Yep, you read correctly; BAE Systems Research and Development have some neat technology on the drawing board now, with aircrafts that can 3D print their own drones being included on the list.
The first 3D printed aircraft happened back in 2011, with the engineers from the University of Southampton having spawned a UAV (unmanned air vehicle) using an EOS EOSING P730 nylon laser sintering machine.
Since 3D printing technology is evolving rather quickly, such low cost flying apparatuses will find their way into military applications pretty soon, BAE estimating that by 2040 aircrafts will be able to print their own drones and deploy them in multiple areas.
According to the situation, several models can be made on the fly, ranging from surveillance UAVs to rescue quad-copters and we can almost see laser-fitted ones too. The list also contains a model named Transformer, consisting of three drones acting like one aircraft that can split and do different tasks as well as aircraft material that can repair itself.
BAE futurist and engineering manager Nick Colosimo said they “don’t exactly know what sorts of aircraft technologies will be used in 2040 with any certainty, but it’s great to be able to show the public some concepts that might be possible through projecting where today’s technology could get to.”
Well, let’s hope the Zergs won’t reach our planet until we have killing drones, siege tanks and Battlecruisers.
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