Top Row (left to right): Soric infusable core, DarkAero featured in the Wisconsin State Journal, Fuselage assembly jigs Bottom Row (left to right): Keegan and River inspect the finished canopy fairing mold pattern, CAD of aft fuselage floor, Completed canopy fairing mold
In April, we continued working on the DarkAero 1 fuselage structures by completing our fuselage assembly jigs as well as the mold for the canopy fairing. We also conducted successful tests on an infusible core material we will be using for thin rigid structures in our cockpit like the instrument panel.
Fuselage Progress We completed the jigs that will be used to combine the two halves of our fuselage. These jigs will ensure uniform clamping force between our fuselage sides and bulkheads during the bonding process. This is a process we are planning on completing for each DarkAero 1 kit to allow our builders to forgo the tricky assembly steps required to combine the fuselage halves.
We completed construction on the mold for the canopy fairing, which is number 30 out of 38 production molds. The canopy fairing is the structure that sits just behind the cockpit and provides a tapered aerodynamic enclosure to streamline canopy. The canopy fairing will be one of the only composite structures on the DarkAero 1 not made of carbon fiber as we plan on housing several of our antennas in this area. To work properly, these antennas require a non-conductive housing in order to "see" out of the plane.
We also began work on the mold pattern for the aft fuselage floor. This section of the fuselage skin extends from the trailing edge of the wing to the rudder and contains the openings to allow the main landing gear to retract into the fuselage. We are excited to start this mold as it represents the last “big” mold we will need to construct. The remaining molds will all be small items such as the wing tips or landing gear doors.
Soric Infusible Core We made several test pieces with an infusible core material called Soric. The objective of our testing was to determine if Soric could be used to replace layers of carbon fiber and reduce weight in applications that would otherwise be made from solid carbon fiber. We achieved favorable results and will be using this core material to construct thin, rigid structures in our cockpit like the instrument panel.
Canopy/Thermoformer After making changes to our vacuum thermoformer used to produce our canopies, we ran several production level tests that resulted in some valuable findings. We achieved the desired performance from our machine that we anticipated but will be iterating on different material types for our canopy going into next month.
Business Development In an effort to refine our knowledge and skills on the business side of the DarkAero project, we entered into the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Competition. After two rounds of judging, our proposal has done well. We received recognition in the Wisconsin State Journal after we advanced into the top 25 out of the over 200 businesses that entered. We received a large number of inquiries and attention after the article circulated so it was good publicity for us.
Looking Ahead Heading into May we have more testing planned for the canopy/thermoformer as well as plans to make the canopy fairing and begin assembly of the fuselage. Additionally, we are targeting completing a few more of the production molds and fuselage components. We are pushing hard to finish the prototype DarkAero 1 as soon as possible, while still maintaining a high level of quality for the production tooling we are constructing. We have been receiving some inquiries about our timeline for flying the prototype. Our intention has always been to fly the prototype into EAA AirVenture but whether we are flying or not by July we will be displaying the prototype at AirVenture. Which leads us into some exciting news…
We are proud to announce that EAA has awarded us a spot to display the DarkAero 1 in their Innovation Showcase at AirVenture this year! This will be a different location than we were at last year, but we believe it will provide more visibility to DarkAero. We hope to see you there!
If you'd like to get more frequent updates on our progress and stay better connected to what we're up to, consider subscribing to our Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook accounts. We've had a great time posting daily updates and having good aircraft discussions. Links to these pages can be found below.
