placed 3rd in @zoodotdev’s makeathon with my foldable drone rotor this was my first contest of this kind, so being recognized among more than 60 other incredible entries really means a lot now i’m already thinking about what to make first with my new 3d printer

i now have a website built it as an engineering portfolio with a bit about me and an archive of my projects hope you like it benfriedel.net/

just confirmed my bachelor thesis topic at airbus i’m gonna be developing part of a manufacturing concept for the next generation of airbus aircraft + building a prototype to validate it as new aircraft concepts (evtol, hypersonic, zero-e) move closer to production, i think understanding how to actually design for manufacturing is only becoming more important do my fellow manufacturing enjoyers agree?

during my trip to the bodensee region, we often saw zeppelins flying overhead airships are obviously an old concept, but they’re still incredibly impressive to see in person makes me wonder if startups will be able to find niche use cases where they can become viable

checked out @eth since i spontaneously ended up in zürich thought about it as an option for my masters, but i still prefer aerospace in california

europe can launch rockets too we might actually be back

i jumped out of a plane last weekend and actually, it was a cessna 172, which is also the aircraft i use as a reference for my modelling work at @zoodotdev insane experience though, definitely need to do that again sometime

just watched this older yt video about the downfall of lilium for those who don’t know, lilium was a german evtol startup which failed mainly because it was too early, while making unrealistic promises to investors what surprised me though were the comments, which are a mixture of schadenfreude and engineers explaining how evtols are supposedly impossible because of physics and certification of course evtols face huge challenges, but companies like archer and joby show that these claims are aging pretty badly so i think that‘s another example of how anti-innovation many europeans think and how much they love to say “i told you so” when someone fails we need a mindset shift here

just found this pile of “bambu poop” behind my printer didn’t even realize that was a thing until now, but apparently i need to print myself a poop bucket a 3d printer really does create its own side quests

and obviously we didn‘t just build a static model of our concept the electrical system worked like a charm

one of the most stressful projects of my life is over unfortunately we didn't take home any prizes, only the top three teams were ranked and we weren't one of them but doing all of this while working and studying full-time was already kind of insane and honestly, seeing what young students from all over germany are capable of was probably one of the coolest parts of the entire challenge the future of aviation is in pretty good hands

first prints are out of the oven with the limited time we had, we decided against making it a flying prototype but we’ll still integrate electronics to demonstrate a few of its key features

you can just build things in zds and i‘m here to show you

been working on a personal portfolio site it’ll probably take a couple more weeks to finish, since it’s not exactly top priority right now but i’ve always wanted one and it’ll be a fun way to display all my projects

update: first test prints are done now it’s time to start designing the full model of our aircraft concept

just finished my last uni exam of the year after having my head down studying for the past few weeks, i can't wait to dive into everything i have planned next we need a functioning model of our dlr design challenge concept ready for the final presentation in less than a month and i also just accepted a new part-time role i'm really excited about on top of that, i'm heading back to airbus next week, plus a few other ideas still sitting in the back of my mind guess the grind never really stops

this looks badass can only imagine what it would be like to intern at such an innovative company