Blockchain and 3D Printing Are Reinventing Aerospace Supply Chains

A combination of blockchain and 3D printing for aircraft parts may launch the technology into the stratosphere.

Cointelegraph spoke to major players in aerospace, including Ernst & Young's global blockchain leader about blockchain's vast potential to impact global business through 3D printing.

Based in New York state, aircraft parts manufacturer Moog Inc. is trialing a combination of blockchain and 3D printing that could give a creaking industry the rejuvenation it badly needs.

"We see all our efforts in blockchain to date as building blocks to connect blockchain to 3D printing and additive manufacturing. While we can't go into specifics into how we're doing this right now, we believe there is strong potential for both Honeywell and the aerospace industry in connecting additive manufacturing and blockchain. The aerospace industry has the potential to benefit from a combination of 3D-printed parts and blockchain technology."

Ernst & Young Global blockchain lead passionate about 3D printingFor many, the fate of blockchain and crypto are intertwined.

Paul Brody, Ernst & Young's global blockchain leader, confessed to Cointelegraph that 3D printing is a personal passion of his.

"Early on there was some misconception that blockchain could be used to protect IP, and that's not quite correct. Blockchain is a great tool for distributing, managing, and paying for sharing IP, but it's not an anti-piracy tool. The way I have to see 3D printing is that it is the manufacturing equivalent of general purpose computing. In the world of General Purpose Computing, any computer can pretty much do most tasks. With 3D printing, we are gradually getting towards something that looks like a manufacturing cloud - and a distributed one."

"In aggregate, blockchain-based systems are likely to be cheaper than centralized systems in the long-run as smart devices do more to manage themselves and depend less on centralized servers. The stage is still a ways off because the overall blockchain infrastructure is still not very mature, but given that most 3D printers are already smart devices, connecting them to blockchains will not be too hard."

Although EY and a number of other industry leaders are actively exploring blockchain, Brody admits that, as of yet, there is no overwhelming demand to combine blockchain and 3D printing.

Brody thinks that "We're getting very close on the public blockchain side to the point where adding blockchain interactions to 3D printing systems is easy enough that it can start to scale."