ARD, home
In a workshop, team members gather around the upright Kronos rocket while two of them kneel to work on its lower body section.
SYS-MFManufacturing· 2025–2026

Composites

In-house fibreglass airframes, made on ARD's own composite spinner.

01Overview

What it does

ARD makes its own composite airframe parts. Lightning's fibreglass body tubes were made on ARD's SRAD automated composite spinner, and Kronos's fibreglass parts, including its boat tail, were vacuum bagged.

02Lineage

How it evolved

Each step built on the last, rocket by rocket.

  1. 2025

    Automated composite spinner

    Lightning's two fibreglass airframe tubes (111 mm ID, 117 mm OD) were made on ARD's SRAD automated composite spinner. Its nose cone was laid up on a PLA male mould and vacuum bagged.

    Flown onProject Lightning

  2. 2026

    Vacuum bagging and tow spinning

    Kronos moved to vacuum bagging, with a 3 mm fibreglass airframe and a boat tail made in a split mould. The team also investigated a CNC-controlled spinner to lay fibreglass tow.

    Flown onProject Kronos

03Flown on

The rockets

All rockets

Build what comes next.

Join ARDAll technology