The Prototype is Just the Start

There have been a number of major projects moving in parallel at DarkAero that we haven't discussed publicly much, so we want to share more about our progress in three key areas: ground testing the DarkAero 1 prototype, expanding our manufacturing capabilities, and growing our team.

DarkAero 1

The DarkAero 1 is a two-seat kit aircraft we have been engineering for missions requiring speed, range, and efficiency. This year we have been advancing through remaining ground tests on the DarkAero 1 prototype prior to transitioning into flight testing. Most recently, our efforts have centered on tests to prove that the landing gear and airframe can handle not only typical landing loads but also edge case landing conditions. To date, we have conducted over 45 drop tests of the airframe onto the landing gear at varying heights and landing attitudes. These tests have followed a pattern of dropping from incrementally higher heights, measuring the loads on the airframe, and inspecting the structures for damage each time. As loads have increased, we’ve iterated on variables like the shock size, shock pressure, and tire pressure in order to narrow in on the best parameters to minimize any loads transmitted to the airframe and occupants. Through testing, several structures were identified that required modification to increase their margins to handle worst-case landing conditions. After making these changes, we repeated the tests to validate that we were minimizing airframe loads and not observing airframe degradation.

Rigorous testing has been an important part of developing an aircraft like the DarkAero 1, where the airframe structures are optimized for a specific mission but still need to be engineered to handle a wide range of flight conditions. Although calculations, simulations, and small scale tests were conducted to drive the design of the DarkAero 1, there has been no substitute for the data and validation obtained through large-scale physical tests. This cycle of testing is also critical in terms of safety. Every aircraft has structural limits, and we want to establish these limits for the DarkAero 1 in a controlled environment on the ground rather than find them in the air when the stakes are higher and people are on board.?

From here we will be evaluating the main landing gear in a nose high attitude as well as applying side loads and braking loads to the gear to close out the landing gear drop testing campaign. In parallel, we have been proof-loading the empennage and tail structures to confirm they can withstand aerodynamic loads beyond what they will encounter through flight maneuvers and in-flight gusts.?

DarkAero Services

In the background, work at DarkAero has extended well beyond the prototype aircraft. To bring a new product like an aircraft to market, a “valley of death” must be crossed. This involves surviving the capital intensive development phase of the product before it can be sold profitably at scale. Completion of the first prototype is often mistaken as the valley exit, while the larger challenge of scaling manufacturing for production often gets ignored. This oversight may arise from observing successful software companies that have advanced from prototype to mass adoption relatively quickly, but for an aircraft company, scaling a prototype to reach the market is less straightforward. We have probably contributed to the narrow focus on prototype development as most of what we discuss publicly is our prototype aircraft. This focus is apparent as we get asked all too often “When will you fly the prototype?” We are extremely excited to see the DarkAero 1 fly, but the question we ask ourselves is, “When will we ship kits?”?

We have always operated under the assumption that we would be responsible for solving how to scale production within our own means. This led us on a journey to develop capability not just to design, build, and test a prototype, but also to build the capacity to produce kits.

By developing these skills and continuously improving our manufacturing processes, DarkAero has become highly capable at engineering, manufacturing, and testing. This is true not just on the DarkAero 1, but really any vehicle where speed, range, efficiency, and manufacturability are key objectives. This has allowed us to expand operations in the background as we have been quietly designing, building, and testing multiple aerospace vehicle platforms through our engineering services. This has been important for funding DarkAero 1 development, and also for building the capability to produce DarkAero 1 kits, allowing us to cross the “valley of death” before the first kits are ever shipped while also eliminating the need for outside investment.

Growth of the Team

One of the most important aspects of expanding our capability is our growing team, which we have tripled over the past year. Scaling the team and transferring knowledge and skills to new team members has presented a new set of challenges outside of what we’ve tackled in developing the DarkAero 1. The importance of building a strong team has driven us to establish a rigorous hiring process and select individuals that have a solid work ethic, hands-on skills, and excitement for aerospace. Given that new team members come in with different skill levels and backgrounds, it was important for us to have a training process to replicate the quality standards we’ve maintained with the DarkAero 1 prototype. The groundwork for this was already laid with our Aerospace Composites Courses that we have been teaching for the past three years. This gave us a foundation for new employees to reference and shorten their learning curve.?

Building a strong team will remain just as important to us as the development of the DarkAero 1 as we progress into manufacturing kits.

We’re looking forward to sharing more DarkAero progress in future posts. We are just at the start of an exciting path to bring this aircraft and more to market. Stay tuned!