Aerospace Engineering Podcast

Martin Eichenhofer is the CEO & co-founder of 9T Labs, a company that was spun out of ETH Zürich in Switzerland. The company specialises in providing software solutions and manufacturing equipment for producing high-quality and high-performance composite materials using 3D printing.

By marrying the worlds of composite materials and 3D printing, 9T Labs is taking advantage of the superior material properties of composite materials and combining these with the geometric fidelity facilitated by 3D printing. As a result, components that were previously unfeasible to be manufactured using composite materials, either from a technical or cost perspective, are now within the realm of the possible.

What is unique about 9T Labs is that the company combines their hardware for 3D printing composite parts with a bespoke optimisation software in order to maximise a component's performance, both in terms of structural design and manufacturing quality. Furthermore, it has been historically difficult to print continuous fibre composites at high quality with a low void content. 9T Labs, however, has patented a process that allows printing at a void content of below 1%, which competes with conventionally manufactured composites.

In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast, Martin and I discuss:

his background as an engineer and how his PhD research led to 9T Labs
the challenges and benefits of 3D printing composite materials
9T Labs’ unique approach to 3D printing composite materials
some of the applications the company is currently working on
and much, much more.

This episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast is brought to you by my patrons on Patreon. Patreon is a way for me to receive regular donations from listeners whenever I release a new episode, and with the help of these generous donors I have been able to pay for much of the expenses, hosting and travels costs that accrue in the production of this podcast. If you would like to support the podcast as a patron, then head over to my Patreon page. There are multiple levels of support, but anything from $1 an episode is highly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Selected Links from the Episode

9T Labs webpage, LinkedIn
9T Labs profile | Composites World
Video: 3D printing for electric cars
Helicopter door hinge case study
ETH Zürich research lab

Chris Voorhees is the founder and president of First Mode, a Seattle-based company that is designing and building technology for extreme environments off and on planet Earth.

Chris has decades of experience in the implementation of robotic systems for the exploration of deep space. His notable experience includes his work as a mobility systems engineer for NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers and lead mechanical engineer for NASA's Curiosity rover. For his efforts, Chris received NASA's Exceptional Achievement and Exceptional Engineering Achievement medals.

Today, Chris oversees the design, development, and deployment of engineered solutions for missions around the globe and throughout the solar system. First Mode is also focusing on significant problems on Earth including the challenging issues of sustainability for the natural resources sector.

In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast, Chris and I talk about:

his background in engineering, including his time at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
his past work on Mars rovers
why we should go back to the Moon
the space projects First Mode is currently involved with
and First Mode’s growing engagement in the hydrogen sector

This episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast is brought to you by my patrons on Patreon. Patreon is a way for me to receive regular donations from listeners whenever I release a new episode, and with the help of these generous donors I have been able to pay for much of the expenses, hosting and travels costs that accrue in the production of this podcast. If you would like to support the podcast as a patron, then head over to my Patreon page. There are multiple levels of support, but anything from $1 an episode is highly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Selected Links from the Episode

First Mode webpage, Twitter, LinkedIn
First Mode blog
Curiosity rover, Spirit & Opportunity rovers
NASA Mars Perseverance rover
NASA Psyche mission
NASA Artemis Moon program
Back to the Moon
Chris' NPR interview
Hydrogen-powered mining trucks

Carl Copeland is the founder of Möbius Aero, an electric air race team, and MμZ Motion, a developer of custom, high-performance electric motors. Carl has built various engineering teams and led innovation in the fields of IT, mechanical, magnetic, and electrical design. He has founded four companies and holds over 25 patents, and his most recent innovation, the Field Modulation Motion System, is a novel electric motor design that is significantly lighter and smaller than established electric motors of similar power and torque ratings.

The Field Modulation Motion System achieves its high performance by using 18-phase field modulation rather than the three-phase modulation used in standard motors, essentially emulating six separate three-phase motors attached to a single shaft. Carl is putting his new engine design to the test in a new air racing series for electric aircraft known as Air Race E.

In contrast to typical air racing series, in Air Race E aircraft race against each other on a course rather than flying isolated time trials. In the past, air races have been an invaluable means of developing aerospace technology in a competitive setting and Air Race E is re-awakening the spirit of competition by launching the first fully electric airplane race series. In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast, Carl and I talk about:

his unique and auto-didactic background in engineering
his goal of finding practical solutions to humanity's problems
the Air Race E competition and the origin story of Carl’s racing team Möbius Aero
the technical details and benefits of his new electric motor
and the impact this has on airframe development

This episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast is brought to you by my patrons on Patreon. Patreon is a way for me to receive regular donations from listeners whenever I release a new episode, and with the help of these generous donors I have been able to pay for much of the expenses, hosting and travels costs that accrue in the production of this podcast. If you would like to support the podcast as a patron, then head over to my Patreon page. There are multiple levels of support, but anything from $1 an episode is highly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Selected Links from the Episode

Möbius Aero and MμZ Motion webpage
Möbius YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn
Carl speaks to Airbus about Team Möbius
Air Race E webpage
Talk on Air Race E | Royal Aero Society
Electric vs combustion engines | Airbus

Dr Evangelos Zympeloudis is the CEO and co-founder of iCOMAT, a company based in the UK that is developing automated manufacturing equipment for tow-steered composites. Fibre-reinforced plastics, such as carbon-fibre or glass-fibre composites, hold great promise for high-performance and lightweight design due to their excellent stiffness and strength properties at low material density. Traditional fibre-reinforced plastics are manufactured using straight uni-directional fibres or with straight fibres woven into a fabric.

Generally speaking, a fibre-reinforced composite derives its strength by aligning the fibres with the direction of the dominant load path. The novelty of tow-steered composites is that strips of composite material, so-called fibre tows, are steered along curvilinear paths such that the fibre direction is not straight, but varies continuously from point to point. This characteristic has benefits in structural design as the reinforcing fibres can now be used to smoothly tailor stiffness and strength throughout the structure. For example, tow-steered composites can be used to curve the reinforcing fibres around windows in an aircraft fuselage in order to improve strength and facilitate net-shape manufacturing.

In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast, Evangelos and I talk about:

his background as an engineer and entrepreneur
the manufacturing challenge of making defect-free tow-steered composites
the capabilities of iCOMAT’s rapid tow-shearing process
the benefits of tow-steering for manufacturing cost and design
and some of the projects iCOMAT is currently working on

This episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast is brought to you by my patrons on Patreon. Patreon is a way for me to receive regular donations from listeners whenever I release a new episode, and with the help of these generous donors I have been able to pay for much of the expenses, hosting and travels costs that accrue in the production of this podcast. If you would like to support the podcast as a patron, then head over to my Patreon page. There are multiple levels of support, but anything from $1 an episode is highly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Disclosure: I currently work with iCOMAT on a number of projects and am a consultant to the company.

Selected Links from the Episode

iCOMAT webpage, LinkedIn
iCOMAT's technology
Video of the Rapid Tow-Shearing process
Tow-steered composites overview:

Current state-of-the-art
Future possibilities

Stefan Brieschenk is the Chief Operating Officer of Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a company in the south of Germany that is developing a low-cost launch vehicle. RFA’s vision is to drastically reduce the cost of access to space through large-scale industrialisation of their operations and manufacturing.

Key to RFA's design approach is a holistic performance and cost optimisation tool that has been developed in collaboration with space industry veterans MT Aerospace and OHB. This approach has led to interesting design choices. For example, the second stage tank is based on inexpensive stainless steel construction, and in places where composite materials are being used, RFA is relying on automotive grade materials that have already been used in high-volume production. In their propulsive system, however, RFA is chasing the highest performance—a closed-cycle staged combustion engine, enabled by modern manufacturing capabilities in 3D printing and which is due to be hot-fired early next year.

In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering podcast, Stefan and I talk about:

Stefan’s passion for rocketry and hypersonic flight
his background at Rocket Lab and MT Aerospace
the gap between the European and US space sectors
RFA’s launch vehicle and design approach
and Stefan’s vision for the European space sector

This episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast is brought to you by my patrons on Patreon. Patreon is a way for me to receive regular donations from listeners whenever I release a new episode, and with the help of these generous donors I have been able to pay for much of the expenses, hosting and travels costs that accrue in the production of this podcast. If you would like to support the podcast as a patron, then head over to my Patreon page. There are multiple levels of support, but anything from $1 an episode is highly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Selected Links from the Episode

RFA webpage, LinkedIn, Twitter
Launch vehicle
Partners: MT Aerospace & OHB
Ten questions for RFA
Staged combustion engine
In the news:

Launch site in Andøya
ESA support for RFA