The US FAA notified aircraft operators of unapproved 3D printed parts.
Last week, the FAA released an official “Unapproved Parts Notification” that listed 23 separate parts that were unapproved. These are parts such as:
- Yoke Grips
- Cup Holders
- Battery Box
- Sunshield
- Headset Holder
As you can see, these are typically 3D printed accessories one can find for almost any activity.
The parts were produced by Kentucky-based “MadeByMike3D,” a.k.a. Michael Graham, and marketed on Etsy. Today, if you hit this Etsy page, you’ll see that there is nothing for sale, including the aforementioned aircraft parts.
It seems that MadeByMike3D began selling these parts as early as 2024, and the FAA began investigating all this in 2025.
The FAA would obviously be concerned about any parts being used in aircraft, 3D printed or not. Even something as seemingly routine as a cup holder might actually cause a problem. One can imagine pathological situations where the holder might break and fall in a way to lodge against a button and cause problems, for example.
MadebyMike3D’s Etsy shop appears to have ceased selling around August 2025, while an FAA Suspected Unapproved Parts investigation was underway. The FAA did not publicly disclose the case until August 18, 2026. It is not yet clear whether Etsy closed the shop, Graham closed it voluntarily after contact from the FAA, or the aircraft products were just withdrawn before the entire shop was closed.
As far as I can tell, MadeByMike3D is no longer distributing these parts on other platforms, although he does appear to have MakerWorld and Cults3D pages.
This is a fascinating situation, as it echoes what’s been going on in 3D printing for many years: the consumer market is colliding with the professional/industrial market.
For the past few years, the professional market has begun to evaporate because the consumer-level machines now match (or sometimes exceed) the capabilities of traditional equipment in that category — and at much lower cost.
Here we have a case of someone making parts that would typically be quite acceptable in the consumer market, but not at all acceptable in a regulated market. A collision of parts instead of machines.
