That's the wave of the future, and it could eliminate expensive parts inventory and the bane of the aviation industry, substandard counterfeit parts.
3-D printing technology has made its way into aviation, and GE has taken it all the way by printing an entire, if Lilliputian, jet engine.
Video: GE Builds Tiny 3-D Printed Jet Engine
By Stephen Pope / Published: May 12, 2015
Engineers at General Electric have created a tiny jet engine using 3-D printing techniques that they say could rewrite the rules for how components inside commercial turbine engines are produced.
The mini jet engine project was completed at GE Aviation's Additive Development Center outside Cincinnati. The lab focuses on developing additive manufacturing techniques that can produce complex 3-D structures by melting metal powders and laying them in super thin layers until something miraculous emerges.
Read more at
http://www.flyingmag.com/news/video-...sF6rFZlGyBU.99
Some aircraft out there in the military sector have over one thousand 3-D printed parts.