A 3D printing beginner made a VTOL that can fly 130 miles, and I'm seriously impressed

3 weeks ago 2

Summary

A newbie built a high-tech 3D printed VTOL drone in 90 days that can go 130 miles.
Tsung Xu had limited experience with CAD, 3D printing, and aerodynamic modeling before the project.
Despite initial failures, the project succeeded, inspiring others to delve into 3D printing projects.

When I first got into 3D printing, I couldn't really make anything more advanced than a 3D Benchy. However, for some, their introduction to the hobby is a lot grander than printing off some little boats. Take, for instance, this amazing VTOL project designed and created by someone with barely any experience in making things, which shows you that you don't need to have years of 3D printing experience to make the really big and cool things (although it does help).

I try to convince everyone to get into 3D printing, and these are the 4 reasons I think you should

After 3D printing for several years, I recommend that anyone buy a 3D printer for the following four main reasons.

This 3D printed VTOL can go 130 miles and was made by a newbie in 90 days

As spotted by Tom's Hardware, this amazing project was the idea of Tsung Xu. They managed to go from nothing to a VTOL that could fly for 130 miles in the span of 90 days. The most surprising part is how Tsung claims that he had barely touched the tools he used to make it beforehand:

Before this project, I was a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic modeling beginner. I had only built and flown one VTOL before. My CAD skills were restricted to extrusions of basic sketches. My Bambu A1 3D printer was only one month old, and I had never tried printing foaming PLA. I had never used any aerodynamic modeling tools to simulate lift-to-drag ratios or stability curves like Cm-alpha.

The video above provides a brief summary of his work, where you can see all the trial and error that went into making this VTOL. As is the case with every good project, there were a lot of failures and lessons learned during the initial phases, with the final project bringing all of the pieces together into an excellent model. For more details, check out Tsung Xu's blog and his Substack feed; while he never goes into great detail over how he created this VTOL, it's still a fantastic story that has already inspired some people to pick up projects of their own.#

If you're wanting to get into 3D printing yourself, but the idea of printing out an aerodynamic drone seems a little too much, don't worry. We have plenty of resources for you to check out and ease you into the hobby: