If you had not seen it already, wanted to call your attention to a July 29, 2016 announcement in the Naval Air Systems Command “NAVAIR News” of a milestone that has potentially significant longer-term Service and DoD supply chain management implications. The NAVAIR news story, entitled “NAVAIR Marks First Flight with 3-D Printed, Safety-Critical Parts”, says in part

“Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) marked its first successful flight demonstration of a flight critical aircraft component built using additive manufacturing (AM) techniques (at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland) July 29.An MV-22B Osprey completed a test flight outfitted with a titanium, 3-D printed link and fitting assembly for the engine nacelle.  This link and fitting assembly is one of four that secure a V-22’s engine nacelle to the primary wing structure and will remain on the aircraft for continued evaluation. The flight was performed using the standard V-22 flight performance envelope.”

Check out the rest of the article on the NAVAIR website for additional details, as well as our DAU Additive Manufacturing Community of Practice (AM CoP) for additional information on the topic of Additive Manufacturing.