Top Row (left to right): Assembly of the fuselage plug tooling board begins, Completed fuselage right side mold next to the fuselage left side plug, Completed fuselage left and right side molds Bottom Row (left to right): Completed canopy frame, CAD rendering of left and right longerons superimposed on the DarkAero 1 airframe, Completed rough passing of the left longeron plug
In February, our main focus was on completing the fuselage side plugs and molds. We also spent time testing our thermoformer, completed the canopy frame, and started construction on the cockpit longeron plugs.
Fuselage Molds Construction is complete on both the plugs and molds for the fuselage left and right sides. These were a fairly large undertaking, and we are happy with the results. Each side required many hours of machining to produce three separate plug sections that were assembled on custom-built extruded aluminum frames. Serving a dual purpose, these frames were then reconfigured to act as support structures for each of the molds after they were built off the plugs. We will be making parts off these molds over the next couple weeks, so stay tuned for updates on our social media feeds.
Canopy/Thermoformer We performed the first trial run of our thermoformer using the canopy mold we completed in January. We learned a lot from this test and implemented a number of new upgrades to the former that will set us up for an additional set of trial runs in March.
Completed Parts The canopy frame was successfully infused. The final part weight came in at 2.59lbs.
Longeron Plugs The design of our longeron plugs is complete and machining has already begun. The parts made off these plugs will form the left and right sections of the structural frame of the cockpit.
Going into next month, we will begin creating the parts necessary to begin assembly of our fuselage structure. With the fuselage structure coming together, we will start to have something that looks like an airplane very soon...
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