Happy New Year! 2023 was a significant year for DarkAero, in both DarkAero 1 development and growth of DarkAero as a company. As we look ahead to 2024, we want to reflect on our journey and share our vision for the future.

DarkAero 1 Progress - 2023 in Review
Important milestones were reached that brought the DarkAero 1 prototype closer to first flight. Some of the key achievements in 2023 include:

• Completed paint primer on the airframe
• Drop tested the nose landing gear to FAR Part 23 standards
• Manufactured and tested the main landing gear retract mechanism
• Tested the fuel sump and then redesigned it based on test results
• Refined the primary flight controls
• Built the flap actuation mechanism
• Designed and built the pitch trim system
• Rebuilt the canopy latch for faster egress in flight testing

DarkAero - Beyond Kitplanes
When DarkAero was founded, our mission was to develop a light aircraft engineered for speed, range, and efficiency. We wanted to document and share our efforts to give a window into the engineering process used to bring an airplane design from concept to reality. Over the years, we chronicled our work through YouTube videos and monthly updates published on our website. To date, we have released over 200 videos and several years of monthly updates, but the information that has been shared publicly is really only a portion of what DarkAero has become. While our initial focus was on developing the DarkAero 1, DarkAero as a company has expanded beyond its beginnings. 

Recognizing our engineering, manufacturing, and testing capabilities, we identified opportunities to provide value beyond the kitplane market. Over time, DarkAero has grown to offer end-to-end technical solutions for a variety of clientele in aerospace and defense. Services have ranged from simple trade studies and CAD modeling, all the way up to tooling design and manufacturing process development, as well as manufacturing of composite structures and hardware. While these projects have increased the breadth and depth of our engineering and manufacturing capabilities, they have also expanded and diversified the company. This has allowed us to sustainably develop the DarkAero 1 without compromising on our objectives for the design and without requiring outside investment. Successfully bringing a new airplane design to market requires a dual focus on tackling engineering and manufacturing challenges while also navigating the business landscape, and we have maintained a steady dedication to both of these fronts.

The growth of DarkAero has led us to expand our team. In 2024 we will be hiring more engineers and technicians. Specific open positions will be posted on our new Careers webpage in the next few weeks, but for now, interested candidates can simply reach out to us at careers@darkaero.com.  

Quality Certification
As DarkAero continues to expand, we recognize the importance of maintaining rigorous quality standards across both our kitplane and contract operations. In 2023, we dedicated significant efforts to establishing a Quality Management System (QMS) and pursuing AS9100D quality certification, the recognized standard for ensuring quality in aviation, space, and defense organizations. This certification will help us create a superior product for DarkAero 1 builders, and for our aerospace and defense clients, it will mean partnering with a company dedicated to quality. We anticipate receiving AS9100D certification in the first half of 2024. 

Kit Production
Over the past year, reservations for DarkAero 1 kits increased from 177 to 211. These numbers are beyond the level of interest we anticipated when we started DarkAero, which has come as a pleasant surprise. The downside of increased demand is a longer lead time for new customers who are interested in DarkAero 1 kits. We have remained conservative when discussing kit lead times so that customers have a realistic understanding of the project timeline. The first priority in transitioning to kit production will be manufacturing a quality product, but once that is established, accelerating kit production will become a major focus as well. 

DarkAero Courses
Our training courses continued to remain popular in 2023 as we ran seven sessions of our Aerospace Composites Course and five sessions of our Aerospace Mold Making Course. More sessions are planned for 2024, and both of these courses are now available online as well. If you're interested in signing up for any of our upcoming course sessions or want to get started with the online version, check out the links below:

Aerospace Composites Course 

Online Aerospace Composites Course

Aerospace Mold Making Course

Online Aerospace Mold Making Course

YouTube
In 2023, eleven new videos were released on the DarkAero YouTube Channel highlighting prototype progress, design philosophy, testing, engineering challenges, and technical solutions. The latest video released in late December showcases recent progress made on implementing the flap system on the DarkAero 1 prototype. 

The number of DarkAero subscribers recently surpassed 100,000 and the total number of DarkAero video views has exceeded 10 million!

DarkAero 2024
With the majority of systems tasks on the DarkAero 1 prototype being wrapped up in 2023, our efforts in 2024 will be primarily focused on testing. This will start with remaining ground tests, followed by medium and high speed taxi tests, and then first flight and envelope expansion. After flight testing, we will transition from prototype development to production ramp up with the first kits slated for construction in 2024 at our pilot production facility. We are excited for the year ahead!