Building an Aircraft Factory | NEW Shop Tour 

“…we’re serious about this whole DarkAero thing”. Uh, yeah!!! We can see that!!! Rock on guys; American Dreaming in action.

Great to see you guys grow: a couple of comments/suggestions (I have setup several shops and labs): 1. Don’t put your whiteboard visible from the outside, anyone walking by can guess too many things about your business and your employees. 2. Wide open space are great but you have a mix or processes with different requirements (cnc, composite, assembly, packaging,..) and they all have different requirements. 3. Use more electrical tans air drop that you need to allow reconfiguration flexibility. Last but not least, add more lights, I was looking at your shadow when giving the tour and in many places you have no direct lighting above you and that will create unpleasant dropped shadows on your workbenches. Hope this help and good luck.

Fascinating to watch the evolution of your program guys. So well organized and planned! All the best!

I was not convinced until the last part of the video, but these guys are really doing it. Good sales pitch for a company.

Congrats. All of this shows what hard work can get you. Keep moving forward.

This is a gorgeous space! Cant wait to see it when you’re officially moved in. 😍

Congratulations gents!

Much luck and love from the left coast!

Good luck with the next phase of your project!

Come on guys it’s been Three years let’s get this thing airborne already chop chop

Awesome looking workspace to expand on the DarkAero processes, seriously you could film & share more & Aviation nuts like most who are here would love it! Really want to see this bird take to the skies!

Awesome progress guys!

Awesome new shop! I hope you follow many other shops advice when it comes to hardware storage. [(clickbonds, inserts, standoffs, etc) for off the shelf storage, vaccum/ peanut packaging/s&h, creating a crate design for transport as well as an area to stow the fuseloges seats, inserts, helicoils, shearwire, safety wire, cooling fans for avionics, light controls, lights, position sensors, antennas, cockpit switches, circuit breakers, fadecs or ecus, as well as props, engine spares, fuel cell access panels, wing assemblies, landing gear, canopies, flight control surfaces, hazmat, (proper ventilation for carbon fiber sanding, etc.)] Separate pegboard layup tables for building the harnesses, connectors, pins. As well as separate hazmat cabinets for isopropyl, acetone, sealants fuel cell, fuseloge bonding agents, clicking glue, fuel, etc. Plan to build 10 in 6 months while you test this one. It's quite doable with (~ 4 people with an 8 to 10 hour day schedule.) Kudos on all the planning! I think there's a lot a potential for sister companies running production under part 135 on this aircraft in terms of it if you could make presumably 3k for every aircraft manufactured. Let's say each company manufacturers 20-40 aircraft and you have 4 manufacturers around the world to scale you could net 200-500k in 135 aircraft sales alone and a margin of 95-135k in part 145 service related revenue under the branding. You could continue with R&D and experimental aircraft designs releasing a new aircraft every 3-5 years and maintain the simplicity of things by not doing every single aspect on each aircraft. Not sure about the longevity of your actuators for your landing gear. It seems that there is quite a bit of torsional load on the fixed point gearing. I hope you cycle the gear quite a few times with the fuseloge at different angles. I would recommend installing a seal at the bottom of the shop door into the offices as a separate room just for structure moldings and processing would be best. Also try to break everything down into build sheets. I would also consider the shop eventually segmented with taped out control areas for safety and safety glasses, ear plugs, eye wash/ first aid station. Plan to tour people in and out of your facility. It's gonna be busy, so, you could easily overlook something. As always, take a tour of a few manufacturers facilities and go from there. You're on the right path!

No better feeling then a new, well lit, and bigger shop!

What a huge step! Congratulations. The teaser shot of the bird on her LG was tantalizing.

Занимаюсь карбоном в России ,слежу за вами,поражает прогресс .у нас такое невозможно.мечтаю о такой работе.красавцы удачи вам!

Congrats! So excited for you guys, you've worked really hard to get to where you are!

Excited for you guys! Can't wait to see it fly, and hear what the final weight, useful load, cruise and service ceiling are. You guys are amazing.

Looks good guy! It's exciting to watch your journey and I can't wait to see the final setup!

Congratulations !!!

Looks really nice! Good luck with the engine start

Big congrats to you guys! So nice to see your progress since you first began!!

Congratulations on the new space! We have loved watching your journey... Way to turn your dreams into reality!

Looking very good, mouving fwd !

I have not seen any statistics for the speed / range / efficiency. but would love to hear that information. You have a fantastic airplane in the DarkAero.

Bro! I'm so excited for this. You guys are on it!

Very very nice setup fellas. You really ought to have a carbon fiber refrigerator 😎

I remember a reality series where the guys would make desk out of old airplane wings.. one of those would give a nice touch to the entrance

Amazing progress guys! New location looks great!

Wish you the best

It has been fun watching you through your travels. Plane is beautiful. Just watch costs, so you can survive.

Looks pretty neat, can't wait to see more aircraft being built there, side-by-side :)

like the building! As an IT guy, i noticed there are no network jacks. might want to see to that before you move in. wifi will not cut it.

Great to see you progress and keeping the dream ( for all of us GA enthusiasts ). Just a thought - you might want to give some thought about protecting your IP if you have your engineering desks/"huge white board" in the front entrance. IP includes DarkAero designs, manufacturing tooling/processes, etc. Thanks as always for sharing !!

My manufacturing business started with 1,000sqft and now consumes 30,000sqft. Production requires good flow! Raw material in to finished goods out.

Lightweight steel framing nice this is the best choice fast and clean finishes👍

good luck, excited to see a finished plane, but enjoying watching the process

Wow it's great to see yall progressing, very nice to move into a larger workspace too!

Heck yeah! Congratulations on reaching another milestone 👏

You guys never fail to impress. Eyes on the prize as always!

great !

awesome, fantastic progres, thes best for you guys

Everything you guys do is impressive, well done! 👌🏻😀

The sky's the limit, gentlemen! Best of luck to you.

congratulations to Dark aero for starting a new phase.

AWESOME! Congrats.

although it's kind of obvious that your plan is working out, I allways had that small thought of the delay of revenue for kits putting a stop on everything, before you could finish it. glad it was without reason

Congrats from Portugal

I was JUST thinking about where to buy composite panels for the next project I had in mind! Great timing!

Great shop. Maybe consider the means to obscure your plans, strategy, progress information from view from “the street”

Congrats.

Love following your project, thanks for sharing

Looks great, must be an exciting time for you guys! :)

Awesome, one of a kind! 👍I love how the engineering kicking in….

This is awesome. Congrats guys

G,day Reilly, Keegan and River from Sydney Australia. The new manufacturing, office and training center looks fantastic. I was always interested in: * Noise dampening treatment * Ergonomics * Productivity of every square feet of floor space. (In other words) material only going in one direction. 🌏🇦🇺

USA needs more gentleman like you boys.

I work in a maintenance shop, you need more light.. because there is always dark areas under or around the area you are working on. It's easier to put in the lights now than later.

Brilliant progress! Where I live.....that kind of space would be about $1,000,000/month so it looks even more impressive.

恭喜恭喜

Looks AWESOME !.....(paint the brick)

Congrats on fulfilling the NEED to expand! Further expansion for builder Build Assist?

Put a darkaero logo in back also. For the delivery drivers.

Exciting stuff lads 👍🏻

Looks great. Do you have 3-phase power in the suite?

Good luck guys with the next steps in realizing all your aircraft dreams.

Awsome guys:)

Nice space!!

you guys are awnsome !

Put a decent sized scale model on a pedestal in the center of the foyer so that people can gawk at it. Maybe 2 feet long? Working gear and canopy and control surfaces that slowly cycle only when someone is nearby.

Awesome progress! If you're not still using lean in your workshop, I highly suggest that you employ lean in your new factory. It is such an amazing technique that saves not just money but time and mental health) Started using it in my mini metalworking factory and would never want to go back. Look for "Pierson workholding lean" on YT, or "Fastcap factory tour"

This space it legit! Can’t wait to see it come together!

You three boys, Must make your father proud! Great to see success stories the yours. I was on the Raptor train for many years deposit #68. I guess I placed a deposit with the wrong team. How long is the list to take delivery of a kit?

Contrats guys !

How do you make a small fortune in aviation, start with a large one!

I wish you the best💛

Wow☀️👍

6:50 is that a flame thrower?

On Wisconsin!

Awesome

Growth and progression critical to an up and coming company. You guys are nailing it, congratulations. BTW, stay away from Shark Tank! ;-)

Very very Nice build, glad you Three Can Be Able to Grow, Hope you Have a very Sweet air collection system when you bring More CNC aboard. Take a Look at this Company, They may help you Guys out. TRION Indoor Air System they are the Best for your Work. Greg

I think it is great that you are going to be selling panels as well. Do you have any idea on ballpark pricing yet?

Any plans to get it certified?

Beautiful place. What is the rent if I may ask? 30k?

Trust me you are going to need at least twice that amount of light. We made the mistake of not putting enough in our factory and had to go back and add more.

Congrats, guys! I've been following each step of this endeavor. Wish y'all success and accomplishment. Can't you use the top of the office as a second floor (e.g., storage, expansion, etc.)?

Retired ATP/LR-JET here... Lost my medical. Are you guys hiring?

Considering a "long wing" version, with perhaps a lower stall speed?

Engineering and manufacturing should ALWAYS be in the same building. That is what went wrong at GM.

This looks expensive. How do you fund the company?

Absolutely awesome what’s the address going to be coming through town next week Renn

did I miss the flight testing?

What are you guys building?

I wish you were in the north east, Id apply for a job. Love what you’re doing, totally up my alley!

What airport are you located at?

Where ur new office located ?

Factory before flight ?????

How is a venture like this funded? Seriously the risk is gaging me. Good luck