May has been a busy and exciting month with a lot of good progress made on the DarkAero 1.

Fuselage Assembly
A significant portion of May was focused on fuselage assembly. We were able to fully assemble the fuselage with all major bulkheads. This allowed us to test out our assembly fixtures and uncover some process improvements we will carry forward into production. We were also able join the fuselage to the wing and tail structures giving us our first view of the full DarkAero 1 in person. Seeing the full assembly for the first time was extremely exciting for us but also a bit strange. We had spent so long looking at the 3D CAD model on the computer that it was as if we had already been looking at it for years now. What was special though was the feeling of just standing next to it.

As we progressed through assembly we made a couple of in-process changes that we were able to implement on the prototype. One of the big changes was on the nose wheel well.

Nose Gear Wheel Well
We eliminated the mold for the nose gear wheel well by making this part out of a folded honeycomb sandwich panel. This part was originally planned as a molded section of carbon fiber but we have advanced in our design and manufacturing abilities with panels and found a way to convert this part into a panel structure. This improvement saves making a new mold and the carbon fiber layup process for that part.

Canopy
Additional canopy testing was completed in May. Thermoforming is a challenging process because of the number of variables involved but we have been documenting everything thoroughly. We are now down to the point of iterating on the temperature distribution in our setup to try to optimize the final result for optical clarity.

Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Competition
After three rounds of judging against over 200 business proposals, DarkAero was selected as one of 13 finalists in the Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Competition. On June 4th we will be giving a final presentation to a group of judges. Results will be announced the following day. We are proud to have made it this far given the field of other competitive and qualified businesses that have entered.

Summer Intern
We brought a summer intern onto our team, Ryan Stube. Ryan just completed his sophomore year at the University of Minnesota studying Aerospace Engineering. He will be helping us accelerate progress on the DarkAero 1 as we go into final airframe assembly and prepare for Airventure. Ryan will be a fresh set of eyes on the project, and we are really looking forward to having the extra support.

Mold Progress
Wing fillets, wing tips, sump, gear doors, and aft fuselage floor make up the remaining molds for the DarkAero 1. The aft fuselage floor is the largest of these remaining molds and progress on the mold pattern is already underway. The remaining molds are small and should be a quick turn around.

Looking Ahead
Going into June we will be working towards the completion of the aft fuselage floor mold and part along with the wing fillets. Additionally, more fuselage assembly is planned with attaching the cowling and other fuselage skins as well as installing control system components.