Key Factors
- Divergent Applied sciences and Mach Industries launched the Venom autonomous strike plane prototype developed from idea to flight readiness in 71 days.
- The undertaking demonstrates speedy plane improvement utilizing digital manufacturing and modular programs aligned with U.S. missile and drone acquisition efforts.
Divergent Applied sciences and Mach Industries introduced on Feb. 17, 2026, in Los Angeles that they’ve collectively launched Venom, an autonomous strike plane prototype developed and dropped at flight readiness in 71 days, demonstrating speedy {hardware} improvement enabled by digital manufacturing and modular system design.
In keeping with a joint announcement from the businesses, the Venom plane serves as a flight demonstration platform designed to point out how protection {hardware} can transfer from idea to operational prototype utilizing software-driven engineering and manufacturing strategies. The undertaking combines Mach Industries’ system structure and avionics integration with Divergent’s digital manufacturing know-how.
The prototype was developed utilizing a modular open-systems structure established by Mach Industries, which leveraged avionics and simulation instruments derived from present flight-proven know-how stacks. Divergent executed the digital design and additive manufacturing of the plane’s main construction, together with wings, fuselage, skins, and management surfaces, producing them as monolithic assemblies quite than conventional multi-part aerospace constructions.
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“This partnership between Mach Industries and Divergent demonstrates a pivotal functionality for the nation. By combining Mach’s modern programs with Divergent’s revolutionary digital manufacturing platform, we’ve moved from idea to a flight-ready prototype in 71 days,” stated Alex Lovett, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Struggle for Mission Capabilities within the Workplace of the Beneath Secretary of Struggle for Analysis and Engineering. “This isn’t simply a powerful metric—it’s a direct enabler of our technique to realize inexpensive mass and assist the SECWAR’s ‘Drone Dominance’ imaginative and prescient. ODASW(P&E) is dedicated to sponsoring collaborations like this that speed up speedy acquisition and ship pressing, low-cost munitions to the warfighter.”
The businesses stated Venom was enabled by Divergent’s Adaptive Manufacturing System (DAPS), a producing strategy that replaces complicated multi-hundred-part assemblies with unified additively manufactured constructions. As famous by the corporate, this course of reduces total half counts whereas accelerating manufacturing timelines and simplifying manufacturing workflows.
“Going from inception to flight in 71 days is a transparent demonstration of what’s attainable when Divergent’s Adaptive Manufacturing System is utilized from day one. That is what manufacturing on the pace of relevance seems to be like,” stated Lukas Czinger, co-founder and chief government officer of Divergent. “Most significantly, Divergent will drive the speedy scale-up of this method, producing hundreds of airframes yearly. Partnering with Mach has been a direct win and displays two mission-aligned, modern corporations executing at most tempo.”
Mach Industries established baseline system necessities and performed iterative testing utilizing a shared simulation and management framework that allowed {hardware} and software program improvement to proceed concurrently. The businesses stated this parallel engineering mannequin enabled accelerated validation cycles and diminished the timeline between preliminary design and first flight.
“During the last 18 months Mach has taken 4 merchandise from idea to flight check by speedy iteration, and Divergent’s adaptive tech stack has been instrumental in accelerating that iteration,” stated Ethan Thornton, founder and chief government officer of Mach Industries. “Mach’s choice for a manufacturing contract is the primary of many alternatives to point out not solely pace to prototype, however pace to scaled manufacturing.”
Venom represents a prototype autonomous strike plane meant to display speedy acquisition ideas quite than an introduced operational deployment. The platform integrates autonomous flight functionality with scalable manufacturing methods geared toward producing airframes extra shortly than conventional aerospace applications.
