Construction on the DarkAero 1 prototype continued in July with further progress made on the control system, electrical system, avionics, and landing gear. Installing and integrating systems was a large focus for the past month.

Wing to Fuselage Fit Up
One of the more significant and exciting areas of progress in July involved mounting the wing to the fuselage with the airframe sitting inverted. The wing and fuselage had been married together many times before but this was the first time with everything inverted. This orientation allowed us to more easily verify the fit and alignment between the lower fuselage skin and lower wing skin as well as match drill the holes that will allow the wing to be bolted to the fuselage. A large portion of the progress made in July was related to the inverted airframe assembly.

Nose Gear Installation
The nose gear wheel well was easily accessible with the fuselage positioned upside down so we took the opportunity to cut out the skin section covering the wheel well, fit up the nose gear, and swing it through its retract path. We also started work on the nose gear doors, which are made from several laminations of carbon fiber with an infused Soric core for added stiffness. Additionally, this month was dedicated to many design details and small revision improvements with the nose gear to ensure it functions properly not just for the prototype but for production and to ensure it satisfies our requirements for ease of assembly for our builders. 

Controls Fabrication & Installation
We installed the elevator control system components that were built in June into the fuselage. The majority of the aileron control system components were fabricated and installed as well. Most of the installation work occurred on the bottom of the aft baggage floor and inside the armrests. Mating the control stick grips to the rest of the control system will be the next task to complete. We are still evaluating a few different control stick grips, but we plan to have this complete in the next few weeks. 

Aft Avionics Plate
We were able to wrap up work on the aft avionics plate in July with efforts culminating in the plate’s mounting rails being installed in the aft fuselage behind the main gear wheel wells. This position allows the plate to remain accessible and serviceable through the opening of the main gear doors.  Getting to this point required completion of the wiring and final installation of components on the plate. The fully wired plate gave us a better sense of the volume that it would consume in this section of the aircraft, which allowed the position of its mounting rails to be determined. As a final step, the plate was painted to prevent galvanic corrosion between installed components and the plate. 

Lighting
We purchased lights from AeroLEDs that will be installed in the DarkAero 1 prototype to allow it to fly at night. We selected the AeroLEDs Pulsar NSP wingtip lights to provide navigation, position, and strobe light functionality in a single package. The landing/taxi lights will be two AeroLEDs SunBeam units mounted on the main gear struts. We were able to test the lights to see their beam pattern and intensity, mount them on the wingtips, and start running some of the wiring in the wings that will provide power for the lights. 

YouTube
AirVenture 2020 was cancelled in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic so we decided to release more YouTube videos in the month of July. Our goal with this initiative was to try and fill some of the void left in the absence of AirVenture, connect with the aviation community, and offer more of a window into the design and construction process of the DarkAero 1 prototype. We succeeded in releasing 31 new videos on our channel, one each day in July! This was a challenging project for us, but we grew as a team through the effort. If you have not seen them yet, we recommend visiting our YouTube channel to check out our latest videos!

https://www.youtube.com/darkaeroinc

Canopy
Manufacturing of an optically clear canopy free from defects and imperfections has been an ongoing project. To accelerate the process of achieving a production grade solution for the canopy, we explored options for outsourcing the canopy manufacturing. In July we visited Airplane Plastics in Dayton, Ohio who manufactures canopies for the popular Van’s RV kit airplanes as well as canopies for many other aircraft. After a few discussions, we worked out a plan to build a new plug for an updated canopy mold, which will allow Airplane Plastics to form canopies for the DarkAero 1. We will have more information to share on this effort in some future updates. 

Aircraft Wiring
The remaining wiring for the aircraft, not including coaxial lines, has now been purchased.  We had held off on this purchase while we finalized the positions of electronics and avionics throughout the plane. This wiring will allow us to begin construction and installation of the harness that will tie together our primary avionics modules. Once the position of antennas in the canopy fairing has been finalized, the remaining coaxial lines will be purchased as well. These positions will be finalized next month. 

Carter’s Intern Projects
Our new summer intern, Carter DeSpirito, continued on a number of projects this month. He completed the painting of our cowling interior with fire retardant paint. This paint provides a barrier that will help to contain an unlikely thermal event and protect the inside face of the cowling from UV damage while performing engine service outdoors. Carter continued development on the oil dipstick door hinge and latch mechanism, and established a materials list for the main gear mounting points. Carter also reconfigured several pieces of manufacturing equipment for future projects. 

Propeller Selection
One of the last remaining firewall forward tasks has been propeller selection. After discussions with several propeller manufacturers, we decided to go down the path of using an electric constant speed propeller from Airmaster Propellers. Airmaster makes a high speed propeller designed specifically for the UL520iS engine and we believe this will make a good starting point for our airframe and engine combination. We finalized design discussions with Airmaster on interfacing our spinner with their propeller hub with everything positioned correctly relative to the cowling. 

In The Press
Ryan Dembroski, host of the SuperAero YouTube channel, invited Ryley onto his weekly SuperAero LIVE show to talk about airplanes and the DarkAero project. The streamed interview can be viewed on the SuperAero channel at the link below.

https://youtu.be/da9FRW2YPc4

Looking Ahead
In August we are planning to complete the flap controls, manufacture the plug for the new canopy mold, begin installation of the wiring harness, and flip the airplane upright for further installation of systems. We made a push in July to publish daily updates on our YouTube channel since EAA AirVenture was canceled. Going forward, we will continue to release videos but they will be delivered as often as they align with our development schedule for the DarkAero 1 prototype.