Istari Digital — a company founded ‘with the vision of making digital engineering ecosystems a reality where all technologies are created digitally, free from real-world costs, schedules, and environmental impacts’ — has announced its latest project, Flyer Øne. A modification of
Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works X-56A, it is poised to become the world’s first digitally certified aircraft, and thereby ‘set the stage for a new era in aircraft development and certification’.
With its Flyer Øne programme, Istari Digital aims to create and flight-certify a digital twin of the aircraft before any physical prototype is built. The company says this ‘innovative approach’ is set to “revolutionise aircraft development by aligning the pace of advancements with the rapid evolution seen in software engineering.”
Recently, Istari Digital and Skunk Works achieved a significant milestone by passing the Critical Design Review (CDR), signalling that the project is on track to reach the first digital flight release. They say: “This achievement is more than a technical milestone; it is a testament to the United States Air Force’s storied legacy of pushing the boundaries of the physical world — now expanded into the digital realm.
“The emergence of the world’s first digitally certified aircraft represents a shift in how future aircraft will be developed, certified, and evolved. This project exemplifies a new frontier in aviation, where digital innovation drives physical reality.”
The X-56A resulted from the quest to fly higher, farther, faster, and more efficiently — a quest that has always been dogged by flutter, a potentially catastrophic dynamic interaction between an aircraft’s structural elasticity and the aerodynamic forces acting upon it.
The X-56A was initially developed under the Air Force Research Laboratory sponsored Multi-Utility Aeroelastic Demonstrator (MAD) programme as a modular unmanned air vehicle (UAV) designed to push the boundaries of active flutter suppression and gust load alleviation. Since its maiden flight in 2013, X-56A has made significant strides in flight control, proving its capabilities in flutter prediction and suppression with its flexible, slender wings.