Aeralis

History

Dart Jet was formed on 27 August by Tristan Crawford in Stowmarket, Suffolk, to develop the Dart modular jet trainer system, employing a core common fuselage and center wing box, to which can be added wings, cockpit, engine, empennage and landing gear applicable to the intended role and customer requirements. The company changed its name to Aeralis on 17 December 2016.

Aeralis expanded its modular concept to a complete digital package known as Aersystem, comprising three elements: the Smart Integrated Digital Enterprise (Aerside), which centralises and leverages data throughout the design, engineering, manufacturing, synthetic and operational flying of all Aeralis aircraft, creating inherent digital twinning at platform, fleet and enterprise levels. The Open Systems Architecture (Aerosa) provides reconfigurable avionics allowing the interchange of system components without the need for re-certification of the whole system. This enables modularity of sensor loadouts as well as easier adoption of new technologies in the future. The final part of Aersystem, Aercore, is the modular aircraft system, combining a common fuselage with an array of module suites to create role-specific whole aircraft configurations.

In February 2021, Aeralis won a three-year government contract with the RAF Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) to support PYRAMID, the RAF’s Open Mission System Architecture (OMS), planned to form the core of the AERALIS modular avionics and mission system and for wider use in UK Combat Air.

In 2022 Aeralis established its Enterprise Hub in Bristol, providing a central space from which their partners developing its digital enterprise, open-system avionics and whole aircraft design could work both physically and remotely. Partners include Atkins, Thales UK, Siemens and Hamble Aerostructures. In December the UK Ministry of Defence has awarded the company a £9 million contract for digital engineering support services, awarded by the UK team within the new Global Combat Air Programme.

In June 2023, Aeralis signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with International Turbine Engine Company to develop powerplant solutions for the aircraft, and in July signed an MoU with Inzpire Limited to jointly develop an Aeralis aircraft service capability and technical offering in the context of the fast jet training and support market. In September the company announced an MoU with Babcock France to explore the operation of flexible aircraft ‘as a service’.

In September 2023, Aeralis revealed a completely revised design, while maintaining the modularity concept. To the Common Core Fuselage can now be added a moderately swept advanced wing with single or twin engines for training roles, a fully swept transonic wing with a single, reheated, engine for single-seat Aggressor/Surrogate roles or high aspect ratio upswept wings for uncrewed Tanker/ ISR roles.

Company References

1. https://aeralis.com/
2. Flight International 12 Oct 2018
3. RAeS Aerospace August 2015
4. Aviation Week 6 Sep 2021
5. Flight Global 17 Sep 2021
6. Flight Global 24 Jun 2022
7. Flight Global 20 Jul 2022
8. Flight Global 13 Sep 2023
9. Flight Global 3 Mar 2024
10. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/disrupting-the-military-trainer-market/