The Trent 1000 is a pretty amazing engine developed by the Rolls-Royce company. Lucky for us makers, Adrian created a working model that you can build for yourself. I took on this project a few months ago and ended up making two of them. Link to Etsy

During my build, I had a handful of questions regarding the documentation, some of the components, and the motor. Adrian was very quick to respond and updated the PDF instructions on the fly. Everything is documented and the photos help identify which parts you should be working with at each step.

To begin, I read through the manual to get an idea of what is required in terms of non-printable parts. Hint: you’ll need a lot of 3MM and 2MM screws. You’ll also need a few electronic components such as a motor, ESC, Arduino, potentiometer and momentary push button. To wire everything together, I chose to create a PCB so that the wiring would be cleaner. These are listed on my store if you want one for your build.

Building the model was fairly straight forward but a few times I did have to refer back to the manual to ensure I had things in the proper orientation.

There are two areas of building the model that stand out. First was the motor selection. The one recommended by the author wasn’t available so I used an alternate one which required me to have a different bolt hole pattern for mounting the motor. I filled in the existing holes (using my slicer), then created a template and drilled the holes manually. It worked, but wasn’t as clean as having he holes built in to the model itself. The second area that took time was to get the arms connected to the doors that redirect the thrust. Once you get the hang of it, it was straight forward. You will have to experiment with the position of the sliders to see what works best for you, but I found that having them about 3/4 of the way open made it easier to connect the rods to the doors.

The electronics are pretty straight forward; especially if you have experience with an Arduino and RC electronics. I used a 12V power supply to power the engine which draws > 5A at full power. Make sure that your power supply can provide the required amperage or you’ll experience issues.

To finish the model, I chose to print decals and cut them on my Cricut instead of using the provided 3D printable logo. Another suggestion I wanted to share was regarding the color of the filament. I followed what the creator had in the manual, but after printing a couple of these, I would have used colors that are more like the real engine. So, instead of the light blue or black, use different grey colored filament.

So there you have it! A great model thats if fun and functional (and educational). The most fun is to fire it up and watch it in operation. Here is a short video of the first one that I built. Click here to see the Trent 1000 in action!