Welcome to our October recap email. We accomplished a lot in the last month and wanted to share some of our biggest milestones.
Mold Patterns (plugs) Completed:
Lower cowling (5 sections machined)
Upper cowling (5 sections machined)
Aft spinner (3 sections machined)
We now have 48 of 75 mold pattern sections completed, which means we only have 27 left to machine! Note: due to our CNC machine volume there can be multiple mold pattern sections per mold.
The most challenging of the the fuselage mold pattern sections (lower and upper cowlings) are behind us! Looking forward, our goal is to complete the remaining 27 mold pattern sections before the end of January pending no major road blocks.
Production Molds/Production Machinery:
Lower cowling mold completed
Upper cowling mold completed
Exhaust cover mold completed
Canopy thermoformer upgrades completed
With the lower and upper cowling molds completed, we now have 24 of 37 production molds finished. Big upgrades were also made towards our canopy thermoformer. These upgrades will allow us to perform our first full scale canopy molding test following the completion of the canopy mold.
DarkAero 1 Prototype Parts Completed:
Left and Right Exhaust Covers
Lower Cowling
Upper Cowling
(See the CAD image at the top of this email for a visual representation of our total part completion to date. Non-transparent parts are built and completed.)
In addition to completing the exhaust covers, the lower cowling, and the upper cowling, we machined out a mock plywood firewall and fit the engine up to it. With this setup, we were able to get a real-world assessment of how the engine and engine accessories fit to ensure ease of access for maintenance and check that all visual inspections can be made before flights.
If you'd like to get more frequent updates on our progress and stay better connected to what we're up to, consider subscribing to our Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook accounts. We've had a great time posting daily updates and having good aircraft discussions. Links to these pages can be found below.
