Start-up aircraft manufacturer Natilus has started looking for places to build large-scale facilities that will produce its proposed blended wing-body (BWB) aircraft.
Founder and chief executive Aleksey Matyushev told FlightGlobal on 21 March that the San Diego-based firm is purposefully looking within the USA for building its first plant, partially to avoid supply-chain disruptions related to US tariffs on critical materials.
But that is far from the company’s only consideration in selecting a site.
“We’re talking to everyone,” he says. ”Talent pool is a big part of where we can scale; land is also very important for us.”
The first phase of the project involves Natilus building a 23,226sq m (250,000sq ft) facility where it will build its Kona cargo aircraft.
But the long-term vision is to scale production dramatically with a second 232,258sq m facility to produce its planned 200-passenger commercial aircraft, Horizon.
“Package it all together, and we’re looking for vast amounts of land and, more importantly, an airfield,” Matyushev says. “As we start thinking through it, a lot of the heartland states have land available but the talent pool kind of brings us back into other locations as well.
“Having more localised ecosystems and the talent pool, I think, is probably the most important for us.”
Natilus has lofty ambitions of disrupting decades of dominance by Airbus and Boeing by delivering its passenger aircraft Horizon – which is now still a concept – to airline customers next decade.
But it plans to start smaller with Kona, an optionally piloted cargo aircraft with a targeted payload of 3,800kg (8,378lb) and range of 900nm (1,667km).
Both Horizon and Kona will feature a BWB design – which, if achieved, would represent a radical break from the tube-and-wing configuration.
First, it must build a production facility. The company is considering cities with existing aerospace industries, though Matyushev is wary of getting too close and “competing for talent against some of the bigger giants”.
That may leave Natilus building its factories in proximity to automotive manufacturers that are well versed in producing carbon-fibre components.
Yet another factor is tapping into a cheap supply of electricity. “Where are the hydro plants in the United States? What does the US grid look like? This is all part of the process, which is very data-driven,” he says.
Asked whether Natilus might follow the lead of electric air taxi maker Joby Aviation in targeting a Heartland state for manufacturing, Matyushev says, “There might be a surprise”.
Natilus expects to finalise the site for its first aircraft production facility sometime within the next 12-18 months.
The second facility, for producing the larger Horizon jets, could be located adjacent to the Kona factory – or perhaps somewhere outside the USA. Matyushev points to India and Japan as possibilities.
“As we start thinking about global expansion plans, even if the airplanes are manufactured here, the amount of capacity and need for aircraft is just so vast,” he says. “Having a second plant, or even the first location overseas, might make a lot of sense.”
CARBON CAPTURE
Natilus is eyeing warily the escalating trade war between the US and longtime allies. But Matyushev says the company does not currently anticipate a major impact from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium.
“Natilus has primarily carbon aircraft, so we’re not affected by anything of that nature quite yet,” he says. “We’re watching it closely, but as for today, we don’t seem to be affected.
”Even if the cost is 20-30% more, it doesn’t seem to really make or break anything that we’re working on today.”
Most carbon composite material used for aerospace manufacturing is sourced from Japan – a country that has yet to be drawn into the trade war.
“A lot of their R&D and initial manufacturing [of carbon composites] is usually done in plants in Japan,” Matyushev says. “They seem to have gotten really great it, in terms of the chemistry behind it.”
Japanese company Torray Industries produces much of the carbon material used in Boeing 787s, for example.
Matushev says the aerospace industry’s complex, multinational supply chain represents a challenge – especially in the current environment of uncertainty – and that it would advantageous to build aircraft near suppliers.
Natilus does not yet possess major manufacturing infrastructure, such as autoclaves for baking carbon composite components. But the plan is to slowly ramp up its supply chain and manufacturing capabilities over the next several years.
“On the baking side of carbon fibre, we eventually want to bring that in-house,” he says.
Natilus has already acquired a significant amount of carbon-fibre material from US-based partner Janicki Industries. That material will be used to manufacture the major aerostructures for its first Kona aircraft and is currently being stored in coolers.
“They purchase vast amounts of carbon,” Matyushev says of Janicki. “We slotted ourselves just as a small subset of that large purchase order. It’s enough for the first aircraft, because carbon does have an expiration date.”
Natilus intends to fly a full-scale prototype of Kona within the next two years, and to start producing the type for cargo customers before the end of the decade.
