When you think of something as sturdy has a jet plane you imagine it being constructed in a factory. However the Royal Air Force has now got a Tornado fighter jet plane that has parts printed out using a 3D printer. The test flight of the fighter jet fitted with these parts was successful as per the British company BAE systems from the air force base at Warton in Lancashire this month.

The new technology which allows them to print out the parts will make it easier for the technicians to maintain the plane and substantially reduce the cost of the production of this fighter jet. The RAF stands to gain  over one million pounds in savings thanks to this new technology over the next four years. Some parts of the plane will now cost less than a hundred pounds to produce.

While a relatively new concept 3D printing is already a well established industrial technology. It has been utilized to make prototypes of a number of products in many different industries across the world. Now it is changing the shape of the components industry by making it possible to print parts cheaper than it is to manufacture them in factories.

Britain’s education secretary Michael Gove said that the technology would soon be taught in state schools. This will help the school students learn valuable skills. It sure will be a science project that many of them will enjoy playing around with.