The private turboprop plane, a Cessna Denali, would use 20% less fuel than comparable models, while providing 10% more power, and 35% of its parts, in fact, more 3D printed components than any other production engine in the history of aviation.

This week, the company started tests on 12 additively manufactured parts for the Advanced Turboprop (ATP) engine for which a demonstrator engine had been designed and built over the course of the past year.

The CT7 technology demonstrator engine features 12 3D printed parts which replace more than 855 conventionally manufactured parts due to the 3D printing’s ability to create large, complex assemblies in one piece rather than manufacturing and then assembling multiple smaller components.

According to the ATP Engineering GM at GE Aviation, Gordon Follin, using 3D printing does more than just save money and time.

He said, “Typically, the weakest element of an assembly is where parts come together.

"It’s a place where you can have air leakage, or you can have wear between parts if there’s any sort of relative motion. And by using additive, you eliminate the leakage paths. You eliminate potential wear paths as well.”

The additive manufacturing involved in the ATP also allows the engine to be much lighter than a conventionally manufactured one by eliminating the bolts, welds and other parts needed to attach components together.

The 3D printed parts include both major structural components and smaller, more complex parts throughout the engine, a few examples being the inlet frame, exhaust case, sumps, bearing housings, frames, combustor liner, heat exchangers, and stationary flowpath components.

It is even more special because it will also feature the 3D printed fuel nozzles that was introduced in GE’s new LEAP engine.

The test engine was able to be completed and tested much more quickly than it would have been otherwise due to the use of the engine – the ATP combustor rig tests were completed six months ahead of schedule, while the combustor liners were printed in just two days.

“A huge benefit of additive is expedited test schedules,” said Follin.

“For a program like ATP, one of our big philosophical points of emphasis is getting hardware to test faster instead of spending too much time with models on a computer.

“By putting real hardware on test as quickly as we can, we can use the resultant data to help us design the next iteration for a better product, and we get that product much faster than if we were to use conventional manufacturing methods.”

A second demonstration engine will be tested in the coming months, that will feature even more 3D printed parts, and the company plans to carry out the first full ATP engine test by the end of next year.

The 1,240shp-rated ATP will be the first in a new series of turboprop engines in the 1,000shp to 1,600shp range.

The completed Cessna Denali will have a range of 1,600 nm and speeds in excess of 28 kts.

Additional features will include an aerodynamic titanium compressor, cooled turbine blades for higher thrust and better fuel efficiency, and integrated electronic propulsion control.