YouTubers Give New Meaning to “Air Printing”

Most people complain when their 3D printers start “air printing.” This is what we call it when your printer has a major clog gumming up the hotend, while the rest of the machine continues to go through the motions. But when a group of Ohio-based engineers' Centauri Carbon began air printing, it was a cause to celebrate.

Flite Test, a team of aviation enthusiasts and YouTubers, mounted an Elegoo Centauri Carbon onto a custom-built radio-controlled airplane and successfully printed a second model mid-flight.

This was no backyard glider. In order to lift a 38-pound printer (plus batteries), the RC plane was roughly half the size of a two-person Piper Cub. The craft had a 16-foot wing span and was made of wood, foam, carbon fiber rods, and a few 3D-printed parts. The Centauri Carbon was used to print the wheels and joiners before being strapped on board. “We printed all of the fittings for the airplane out of ABS. Also, we printed the tires as well, using Colorfabb varioShore TPU, which is awesome!” said Stefan Ostergren, the team’s partnership manager.

While airborne, the Elegoo 3D printed a miniature glider previously downloaded from Thingiverse. To lighten the load, the spool holder was removed and a just enough PLA to print the model was loaded into the machine. The onboard camera recorded the whole thing.

Powering the printer while airborne was another challenge. The Centauri Carbon was used a 2,000-watt inverter connected to four 3,300mAh 3-cell batteries. Meanwhile, the plane itself ran on four 10,000mAh 6S batteries, providing enough power for both flight and printing.

The flight only lasted 55 seconds, but the printer reached an altitude of 100 feet and flew around the field before crashing into a couple of trees. The trees actually softened the impromptu landing, allowing the Centauri Carbon to not only survive, but keep printing. The team said the printer’s die-cast aluminum frame was the reason it handled the impact so well.

“The durability of the Centauri Carbon is unbelievable!” said Ostergren. “We crashed the printer going 30 miles per hour, and it handled it beautifully! It continued to print even after the crash and after inspection, the only thing on the printer was a bit of dirt and a few scratches!”

Elegoo’s PR representative told us the Centauri Carbon had been sent to Flite Test with the suggestion that it could be used to print durable parts for RC planes. They were as surprised as everyone else to hear the printer would be flown.

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon impressed us during testing – through we didn’t toss it off the roof – and is currently ranked as our favorite fast budget 3D Printer.