Saab is rewriting the playbook for autonomous aircraft design with Divergent Technologies, unveiling a fuselage built without traditional assembly rigs.
The fuselage stretches 15 feet (4.6 meters) and is made from 26 3D-printed parts, all pieced together by robots.
This reportedly makes it the first aircraft body built using such a method, and it also ranks among the largest 3D-printed aerostructures ever attempted.
“This collaboration with Saab highlights what becomes possible when ambitious aircraft concepts are paired with an end-to-end, software-defined manufacturing platform,” said Divergent Chief Executive Officer Lukas Czinger.
“By tightly integrating digital design, additive manufacturing, and automated assembly, our teams were able to realize a large-scale fuselage structure aligned with Saab’s vision, while moving with a level of speed … that traditional approaches cannot match.”
Saab stated that the design has already cleared structural testing and is slated for flight next year.
Redefining Workflows
The new fuselage was produced using Divergent’s fully digital, software-defined workflow called Adaptive Production System, which combines AI-driven design, industrial-grade printing, and a universal robotic assembly line.
This setup lets engineers iterate on physical structures far faster than with conventional workflows, tweaking designs and testing new ideas with fewer costs and delays.
According to Saab, moving from “design to prototype” now depends less on expensive tooling and more on how fast robots can print and assemble.
“Many traditional truths in aircraft manufacturing were possible to challenge by the joint Saab & Divergent design team,” said Axel Bååthe, head of Saab’s internal innovation hub.
“It is impossible to, as a human, draw these parts, instead they must be generated by optimization and AI-algorithms.”
