One-third of GE’s Catalyst engine, a turboprop set to fly in the Cessna Denali, is 3D printed. It has the most 3D-printed parts of any plane engine in the world.

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In 2014, eight engineers started a secret project behind the walls of GE Aviation’s headquarters. Their challenge? Build an aircraft engine with 3D printing instead of traditional manufacturing.

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The engineers wanted to make an engine with fewer parts than normal – way fewer parts. The normal CT7 turboprop – a small engine that’s commonly used in helicopters – has about 900 pieces to it. By the time they finished their new prototype, dubbed the aCT7 , the engine only had 16.

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At the time, the engineers weren’t fixated on putting the engine into an actual aircraft. But their design experiment paved the way for an even bigger endeavor – creating a 3D-printed engine for an actual […]

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