In a revolutionary leap for aviation, Istari Digital has announced that a modification of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® X-56A is on track to become the world’s first digitally-certified aircraft. Last year, the United States Air Force awarded Istari Digital a $19 million contract to pioneer this ambitious program, aptly named Flyer Øne in homage to the Wright Brothers. The goal? To create and flight certify a digital twin before it’s physically built, paving the way for future aircraft development to mirror the rapid pace of software engineering.
While digital certification is routine in industries like Formula 1 racing, it’s unprecedented in aviation. “It’s not as futuristic as it sounds,” said Will Roper, Istari Digital founder and CEO. “For a new aircraft variant, if the structure and flight dynamics can be simulated accurately, physical prototypes become the slow lane. Hardware as software is the fast lane.”
Istari Digital has previously been tight-lipped about the specifics of their aircraft and industry partners. In an exclusive reveal, they shared the exciting news. “Having just passed a major Design Review, we’re thrilled to announce the modification of the Skunk Works X-56A is on track to achieve the first digital flight release,” Roper said. “The United States Air Force X-Plane program has a storied history of breaking physical boundaries—from the sound barrier to sub-orbital flight. Now, they’re breaking digital barriers too.”
The X-56A, developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, is an advanced modular uncrewed aerial vehicle designed to push the boundaries of High-Altitude Long Endurance flight. With a 7.5-foot fuselage and a 27.5-foot wingspan, the X-56A first took flight in the summer of 2013 from Edwards Air Force Base. With a unique mission to demonstrate flutter prediction capability and flutter suppression, the program achieved significant progress in flight control, demonstrating the ability to suppress body freedom flutter through the development of slender, flexible wings.
The Flyer Øne design features significant modifications to landing gear systems, cameras, as well as addressing obsolescence issues. “In many respects, this is a simpler variant of the aircraft,” said a member of the Skunk Works team. “We collected significant data during the original program, so the simulation of updated flight performance has a solid foundation.”
Roper initiated the defense trend of adopting digital engineering practices during his tenure as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, penning the Matrix-inspired “There is No Spoon” in late 2020. The Pentagon has since directed digital engineering for all future programs. However, unlike Formula 1, aerospace and defense face challenges in integrating numerous intellectual property and classified data sources, making adoption more difficult.
Istari Digital’s solution is a new decentralized data meshing technology that expands on the concept of a “digital thread.” Earlier this month, they launched Model Øne, a program to build an “internet of models” for the Pentagon. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Roper and former Google CEO and Istari Digital investor Eric Schmidt highlighted how such infrastructure could simplify and accelerate virtual technology across industries. “Applying software practices to hardware will lead to revolutionary speed and agility,” Schmidt said. “Istari Digital is providing the missing infrastructure to connect coding environments with existing engineering tools, making software speeds possible for hardware at scale.”
For the digital X-56A, this new digital infrastructure will act as a plug-and-play interface between Lockheed Martin’s simulations and the Air Force’s stringent airworthiness process. The aim is to meet the burden of proof normally required physically for a Military Flight Release.
Once approved, the aircraft-on-a-chip will be built to specification and flown at Edwards Air Force Base. If the physical twin matches the digital model, the aircraft-on-a-chip is a real airplane, at least from a research and development perspective. It can be updated and evolved using software processes without the time, cost, and environmental impact of physical world innovation.
However, Roper cautions, “It isn’t surprising this subsonic drone can be modeled in near virtual reality because it is anchored by significant physical world data. The original X-56A was built to collect flexible wing data because it could not be modeled from extrapolated rigid-wing designs. Model pedigree determines what can be a digital twin.”
The risk of over-extrapolation was evident in the 2022 Formula 1 season when new ground-effect regulations led to unexpected “porpoising” effects for many teams, including Mercedes. Taking over half the season to model, understand, and then correct them, Mercedes Tech Director, Mike Elliott, blamed a single simulation error: “If we hadn’t made that one mistake, we’d have a car that was winning the world championship,” Elliott said.
As Flyer Øne, and with it, aviation, now take to the digital skies, both new design speeds and technical risks will follow in its wake. But like Formula 1, clinging to legacy processes is a losing strategy. Even with new risks, design speed and cycle time win.
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