Take Off
When you are told to turn off your electronic device and the fear of this 500 tonne metal tube attempting to take off grips you, there’s no other option to pick up the in-flight magazine and peruse the items on display.
Usually the items are pretty mainstream; make-up, perfumes, plane shaped iPhone speakers etc though if you’re flying in the US some new consumer tech might catch your eye if you’re an avid reader, 3D printers.
Sky Mall, the catalogue seen on 88% of domestic U.S. flights is now selling the 3D System’s Cube 3D printer not only in its catalogue, seen by 650 million air travellers annually, but also directly on their website.
Sky Mall aren’t the only in-flight magazine to feature 3D printing either; our Group Editor Jim Woodcock was recently heading Stateside on a United Airlines flight when he spotted the picture that adorns the top of the this article. A MakerBot Rerplicator 2X featured in United’s in-flight magazine, Hemisphere, for a tech special feature called “Geared Up”, in which it calls the 3D printer a ‘game-changer’.
3D printing is officially taking off…
