Aerospace manufacturer Natilus is partnering Palantir Technologies to advance production of sustainable aircraft in the US. Through the collaboration, Natilus and Palantir are deploying an AI-based operating system to accelerate development of new approaches to design and streamline Natilus’s operations and strengthen its supply chain.

Natilus is developing a family of blended-wing-body aircraft for commercial operations. With a carbon fibre airframe design, Natilus’s family of aircraft includes a regional blended-wing-body freighter KONA and a 200-passenger aircraft, the HORIZON. Both offer advantages in fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and payload capacity.

Natilus is deploying Palantir Warp Speed for its operations, providing AI-driven data, analytics and modelling to drive real-time decision making. Through the collaboration, Natilus will initially focus on increasing supply chain resiliency and manufacturing efficiency, and further down the line, offering its cargo and passenger customers key insights to enable predictive maintenance, disruption recovery and capture real-time aircraft performance data for product optimisation.

“The US desperately needs a boost in aircraft manufacturing, and Natilus is operating at the forefront of sustainable aircraft manufacturing,” said Aleksey Matyushev, Co-Founder and CEO of Natilus. “We made a commitment to build the first manufacturing facility for the world’s most efficient commercial aircraft here in the U.S. Our success hinges on accelerating our production capabilities, and leveraging Palantir’s AI-driven platform will allow us to transform our manufacturing operations to run more efficiently and meet customer demand for the cargo and passenger markets.”

“Natilus is delivering the future of sustainable aircraft, and we are extremely proud of deploying software that supports the sustained competitive advantage of their blended-wing-body aircraft,” said Emily Nguyen, Head of Industrials at Palantir. “By providing the foundation on which Natilus will integrate all aspects of their aircraft design, engineering and manufacturing, Palantir is committed to helping Natilus build faster and strengthen the U.S.’s position in the global aviation landscape.”