yup, where i live anyway. the cost of just the balsa to build it i worked out to be over $2000 dollars including the cost of getting the forms and ribs laser cut. remember this is a 2.4m long plane im building. the printer is a long term investment for future projects so at the end of the day the cost will be in the plastic which is $30 to $40 bucks a Kg. consider that the goal weight is under 10kg its a fraction of the cost of balsa, plus being able to print my molds for the shell, again is a massive reduction of costs.
if you think of building planes in the current convention then yes you would assume it to be more expensive. however when you start seeing all the places where a printer eliminates costs by reducing the number of processes needed, it becomes cheaper. on top of that you can start almost inventing new methods to speed up and simplify the pipeline by shifting more of the work into the 3D modeling program.
i never said this would be cheap either way, i just worked out it would be cheaper in the long run to start making planes with a printer. the best bit is ill have a catalog of spare parts should something break or wear out, all at the push of a button.
hopefully the techniques and methods i use here will pioneer a new breed of rc plane builders.
