This past month we continued work on the DarkAero 1 prototype with our efforts focused on the main landing gear, propeller installation, and canopy. 

DarkAero 1 Rendered (Part 2)
Carlos Z of Carlos Z-Render worked his magic again to create another rendering of the DarkAero 1. We are excited to reveal the airplane on its landing gear, ready for flight. We are pleased with how Carlos has captured the essence and aesthetic of what we have envisioned for the DarkAero 1. 

Main Gear Manufacturing 
The molds to form the main gear struts were completed, and we proceeded into building the first set of test struts using these molds. Normally we construct our parts in a three step process that begins with making a master plug for the mold, followed by making the mold itself, and then the final part. To decrease development time on the struts, we decided to go straight to making the molds by directly machining them from readily available MDF. After we finish the first test struts from the MDF molds and validate them, we will be able to commit to a set of production molds. In December, we also infused additional solid carbon fiber plates that we will be machining into mounting hard points for the main gear struts. There are a few machined components in the main gear that we are outsourcing, and we consulted with several suppliers to initiate manufacturing these components. We are looking forward to fully assembling the main gear in the new year.

Canopy Progress
If you have been following the DarkAero progress updates closely, you know that canopy manufacturing has been an ongoing project for us with our final unresolved challenge being the production of an optically clear canopy. The photo that follows captures a portion of the many attempts we made this past year to dial in our manufacturing process to produce a canopy that met our specifications. Although we were unable to reach our target, we are happy to announce we finished construction on a rebuilt canopy plug and mold that allowed us to hand the process over to a third-party canopy manufacturer, Airplane Plastics. Sanding and shaping the final plug to get the geometry and surface finish to acceptable levels consumed a considerable amount of time. After we finished building the plug, the whole team worked together to build the new canopy mold. We delivered this mold to Airplane Plastics in person and reviewed it with their team to confirm its suitability for their methods. The mold is now being set up for canopy manufacturing at Airplane Plastics, and we are excited to have a final canopy to show off to everyone in the beginning of 2021.

Propeller Installation
We received our new propeller from Airmaster Propellers that we will be using on the DarkAero 1 prototype. The 67” diameter, three-blade prop is constant speed and electrically actuated. It's specifically set up to work with the UL Power UL520iS engine on high speed aircraft. The blades on the propeller are made by Sensenich and are carbon fiber with stainless steel leading edges for erosion protection. We made a video providing a more detailed summary of this propeller and how it works on our YouTube channel here: 

Why this propeller is different: Airmaster Propeller on the DarkAero 1

We were able to assemble the propeller and perform a trial installation onto our engine. Next month we will be installing the spinner on the propeller and build the forward spinner bulkhead that stabilizes the large spinner we are using. The final propeller installation will complete one of the last pieces of the firewall forward package.

CNC Machining Cost Video
We created a video that highlights some of the variables that drive the cost of CNC machined parts, with our landing gear shock bottom brackets serving as a specific example. You can find this video on our YouTube channel here:

The True Cost of CNC Machining

DarkAero Shop Tour Video
We released a video tour of our shop space on our YouTube channel. This video gives a real sense of how we have had to make efficient use of the space we are in. A link to this video can be found here:

DarkAero Shop Tour

DarkAero Consulting Services
We get asked about our mold patterns, molds, and composites work frequently. The DarkAero Knowledge Base and our YouTube channel give good introductions to these topics, however, they do not provide all the specific details on how to make quality end products. To meet these detailed questions and to help support our mission to create the DarkAero 1, we are launching DarkAero Consulting. More information can be found here:

DarkAero Consulting Page

Intern Projects
Our intern Michael continued to work through the coding and architecture tweaks for the builder work instructions. With the database architecture nearly wrapped up, we will be able to compile each additional chapter and edit them with ease.

Our intern Nate continues to make progress on the fuel sump installation and routing. In December, he finalized the mounting structure design, fabricated the composite mounts, and installed them to the sump.

Press
Another great article from our #002 reservation holder, Richard Visscher, was written and released this month in the Canadian EAA Bits and Pieces publication. The article can be found here: 

In Search of the Ultimate Kit Aircraft: DarkAero 1, Chapter 2

Don’t forget to check out the recent addition to our website where we feature all the press covered on the DarkAero project:

DarkAero Press Page

2020 Year in Review and the Year Ahead
As 2020 comes to a close, we would like to pause and reflect on what we accomplished over the past year and look ahead to 2021. It is difficult to put into words what a strange and challenging year 2020 was. On top of the usual technical obstacles we constantly face, we adapted to new hurdles brought on by the global pandemic. We set lofty goals for ourselves, and we always wish we could accomplish more, but we are still proud of what we achieved in the face of current events. More than anything, we are thankful we are able to continue pursuing this endeavor. We have made it this far with support from so many people, and we cannot say thank you enough to everyone who has helped make this possible. Whether you have reserved a kit, purchased apparel, donated to the Knowledge Base, joined our YouTube community, offered us feedback and advice, or just cheered us on, we thank you. 

As we head into 2021, we wanted to highlight what we accomplished in 2020 and review the goals we have for the coming year. In 2020 we:
-Successfully proof load tested our wing in both positive and negative G load conditions for FAA Normal Category aircraft. 
-Installed the engine and finalized the architecture of all firewall forward systems. 
-Launched the DarkAero Knowledge Base
-Permanently installed the horizontal and vertical stabilizers on the fuselage. 
-Built and installed primary flight control systems. 
-Completed the bulk of the wiring harness construction.
-Machined the nose gear and finalized the design for production retract mechanism and gear doors.
-Redesigned and started construction of our main landing gear. 
-Publicly released the first draft of chapters 1-2 of our build instructions. 
-Released over 60 videos documenting the journey of building the DarkAero 1.

We also grew our audience, team, and kit reservation count considerably in 2020. Stats for DarkAero 2020 growth include:

Kit Reservations: grew from 16 to 74
Team: grew from 1 intern in 2019 to 4 interns in 2020
Instagram: grew over 100% from 3237 to 6690 followers
YouTube: grew over 1500% from 881 to over 14,000 subscribers

Thank you to everyone who has joined in to follow progress on the DarkAero 1 and we hope you will stick with us on our journey! We are excited about the progress we made in 2020 and are looking forward to what is yet to come. We are working to finish the DarkAero 1 prototype and begin flight testing starting in 2021. Things are getting exciting at DarkAero!