A new section for those that have 3D printed an entire model aircraft.

I am not sure if this is relevant (please remove if it isn't).

It might also be interesting to find out why members don't print/fly 3D planes as well as their experience of building/flying?

I've considered it on many occasions, mainly the Eclipson range of models. However, I have been put off by the following:

• Build times - It seems to be literally days of printer time to print a model
• Perceived fragility - One crash seems to rite off most models that I have seen on Youtube

Having said that the things that attract me to printing a 3D plane are:

• Low cost - The filament needed to print a plane is relatively cheap
• Great flight characteristics - The Eclipson range all seem to fly brilliantly

I'm really interested in hearing others' views and experience and maybe one day (when I'm a better pilot) I will print a plane.
Robert

From my side, I fly competition models, so I am always looking for the highest performance possible and I would not achieve that with a 3D printed model as the materials do not have the physical characteristic required in highly stressed areas like wing spars or thin tailplanes

Having sounded somewhat negative, I will say that some of my competition models have 3D printed parts and these include aero parts like wing tips (see below) and some internal parts such as fuel tanks and linkages, but the 3D printed parts must equal or ideally better-existing parts and in all cases where I use 3D parts this is the case.