The team couldn't build a whole commercial aircraft engine as the designs are too complex for today's printers. Instead, they got plans for a simpler engine developed for remote control model planes and customised them for their 3D printing machines. Their final product measures around a foot long by about eight inches tall.
Once finished, the engine was mounted it inside a test cell typically used to test full-scale engines and fired it up. Though not the world's first 3D printed jet engine, it was the culmination of several years of work for the team of technicians, machinists and engineers. The model engine is now on display at the Additive Development Centre.