Divergent Technologies and Mach Industries have formed a strategic partnership to deliver Venom, a prototype flight-demonstration aircraft designed to showcase how advanced defense hardware can be developed at the speed of modern software.
“This partnership between Mach Industries and Divergent demonstrates a pivotal capability for the nation. By combining Mach’s innovative systems with Divergent’s revolutionary digital manufacturing platform, we’ve moved from concept to a flight-ready prototype in 71 days,” said Alex Lovett, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Mission Capabilities in the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (OUSW(R&E)). “This isn’t just an impressive metric-it’s a direct enabler of our strategy to achieve affordable mass and support the SECWAR’s ‘Drone Dominance’ vision. ODASW(P&E) is committed to sponsoring collaborations like this that accelerate rapid acquisition and deliver urgent, low-cost munitions to the warfighter.”
As a component of the partnership, Mach Industries identified the requirements of the baseline system and the aircraft architecture, taking advantage of existing avionics and simulation environments developed on proven technology stacks. The firm adopted a modular and open systems architecture to reduce development time and facilitate quick transition from concept design to flight testing.
Concurrently, Divergent completed the entire digital design and 3D printing of the Venom aircraft structure. The firm manufactured the wings, fuselage, skins, and control surfaces as highly integrated and monolithic structures, thus eliminating the need for the conventional multi-part assembly process.
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“Going from inception to flight in 71 days is a clear demonstration of what’s possible when Divergent’s Adaptive Production System is utilized from day one. This is what production at the speed of relevance looks like,” said Lukas Czinger, Co-Founder and CEO of Divergent. “Most importantly, Divergent will drive the rapid scale-up of this system, producing thousands of airframes annually. Partnering with Mach has been an immediate win and reflects two mission-aligned, innovative companies executing at maximum pace.”
The manufacturing process, powered by the Adaptive Production System (DAPSTM) of Divergent’s, is an approach to manufacturing that replaces traditional multi-hundred-part assemblies with integrated, additive structures. The process is intended to reduce production times, increase the efficiency of structures, and decrease the total number of parts.
“Over the last 18 months Mach has taken four products from concept to flight test through rapid iteration, and Divergent’s adaptive tech stack has been instrumental in accelerating that iteration,” said Ethan Thornton, Founder and CEO of Mach. “Mach’s selection for a production contract is the first of many opportunities to show not only speed to prototype, but speed to scaled manufacturing.”
In this way, by providing a common foundation for simulation and flight controls, Mach Industries is able to facilitate high-fidelity prototyping and iteration not only on hardware but also on software. The common engineering framework made possible parallel development streams, quick system validation, and a condensed concept-to-first-flight schedule of only 71 days, a new record for rapid development readiness of defense aircraft.