GADGET: Drones fly to new heights: Meet the world's first flying 3D printer!

We find it pretty impossible to look at a drone or radio controlled quad/hexacopter without grinning like school kids and seriously thinking of raiding the piggy bank for ways to get our hands on one. However cool they may seem though, sometimes it’s hard to escape the fact that most – like the AR Drone 2.0 are a bit.. well… pointless. Not so the latest drone fromImperial College London, a ‘flying 3D printer’ drone, which could make a massive difference when it comes to things like clearing up nuclear waste.

Imperial’s drone is a quadcopter with four rotors helping to keep it airborne. The impressive creation can be seen hovering over an object, printing a sticky substance that covers the top of it, before another drone lands on top of the object. Once the substance has set, the drone is able to take off, removing the object as it goes.

The tech could come in particularly useful for cleaning up toxic waste, covering and removing objects safely without the need for humans to come into contact with anything dangerous.

That’s not the only thing the flying 3D printer is capable of though, with the New Scientistpointing out that engineers also hope it’ll be capable of building its own nest. Once you addsolar charging or similar to the mix, with the drone resting in its nest until it’s capable of continuing, you could have a pretty unstoppable device capable of traveling huge distances without the need for maintenance.

It could also be pretty cool as a personal gadget too though – just imagine being able to print objects in the air, dropping them out of the sky to surprise people. Christmas will never be the same again, with the possibility of literally dropping presents down the chimney! Maybe.

Check out the world’s first flying 3D printer below: