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To: BenLurkin
Good for home many hours, I wonder.

One certain way to answer that question.
Let the engineers who claim credit for this technological breakthrough to travel exclusively in aircraft powered by the mickey mouse device for the next couple of years.

Normally jet engines last for tens of thousands of flight hours with minimal maintenance.

On the other hand, for "disposable" applications it may fit the bill. Powering drones in a hostile environment comes to mind.

13 posted on 05/14/2015 7:46:44 PM PDT by publius911 (If you like Obamacare, You'll LOVE ObamaWeb.)
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To: publius911
Let the engineers who claim credit for this technological breakthrough to travel exclusively in aircraft powered by the mickey mouse device for the next couple of years

What the hell is "mickey mouse" about it?

Additive manufacturing produces metal parts with fewer voids. DMLS is in its infancy but already it is showing that parts can be built with lower failure rates due to internal cracking under load.

All of this stuff is being implemented now at light speed because anyone with a brain can see that it will utterly revolutionize the factory: no more 5-axis NC mills laboriously cutting a highly complex part and taking days to do it.

There's nothing lightweight about a single spool jet engine turning at 33,000 RPM I guarantee you. That compressor & turbine has been in a spin pit and been taken to burst speed and they know the modes. As engines go it's higher tech then anything built in the 50s. People used to fly in Century series fighters in front of sketchier engines then this.

Realistically only the compressor and the shaft might be built this way; the turbine will be single crystal and that may not change for a while....but peeples be workin' that, too.

It's easy to dismiss some of these technology demonstrators, but it's just the beginning.

17 posted on 05/15/2015 6:53:58 AM PDT by Regulator
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