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Istari Digital Unveils X-Plane To Become World’s First Digitally-Certified Aircraft

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5 months ago

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ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — In a revolutionary leap for aviation, Istari Digital has announced that a modification of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® X-56A is on track to become the world’s first digitally-certified aircraft. Last year, the United States Air Force awarded Istari Digital a $19 million contract to pioneer this ambitious program, aptly named Flyer Øne in homage to the Wright Brothers. The goal? To create and flight certify a digital twin before it’s physically built, paving the way for future aircraft development to mirror the rapid pace of software engineering.

While digital certification is routine in industries like Formula 1 racing, it’s unprecedented in aviation. “It’s not as futuristic as it sounds,” said Will Roper, Istari Digital founder and CEO. “For a new aircraft variant, if the structure and flight dynamics can be simulated accurately, physical prototypes become the slow lane. Hardware as software is the fast lane.”

Istari Digital has previously been tight-lipped about the specifics of their aircraft and industry partners. In an exclusive reveal, they shared the exciting news. “Having just passed a major Design Review, we’re thrilled to announce the modification of the Skunk Works X-56A is on track to achieve the first digital flight release,” Roper said. “The United States Air Force X-Plane program has a storied history of breaking physical boundaries—from the sound barrier to sub-orbital flight. Now, they’re breaking digital barriers too.”

The X-56A, developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, is an advanced modular uncrewed aerial vehicle designed to push the boundaries of High-Altitude Long Endurance flight. With a 7.5-foot fuselage and a 27.5-foot wingspan, the X-56A first took flight in the summer of 2013 from Edwards Air Force Base. With a unique mission to demonstrate flutter prediction capability and flutter suppression, the program achieved significant progress in flight control, demonstrating the ability to suppress body freedom flutter through the development of slender, flexible wings.

The Flyer Øne design features significant modifications to landing gear systems, cameras, as well as addressing obsolescence issues. “In many respects, this is a simpler variant of the aircraft,” said a member of the Skunk Works team. “We collected significant data during the original program, so the simulation of updated flight performance has a solid foundation.”

Roper initiated the defense trend of adopting digital engineering practices during his tenure as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, penning the Matrix-inspired “There is No Spoon” in late 2020. The Pentagon has since directed digital engineering for all future programs. However, unlike Formula 1, aerospace and defense face challenges in integrating numerous intellectual property and classified data sources, making adoption more difficult.

Istari Digital’s solution is a new decentralized data meshing technology that expands on the concept of a “digital thread.” Earlier this month, they launched Model Øne, a program to build an “internet of models” for the Pentagon. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Roper and former Google CEO and Istari Digital investor Eric Schmidt highlighted how such infrastructure could simplify and accelerate virtual technology across industries. “Applying software practices to hardware will lead to revolutionary speed and agility,” Schmidt said. “Istari Digital is providing the missing infrastructure to connect coding environments with existing engineering tools, making software speeds possible for hardware at scale.”

For the digital X-56A, this new digital infrastructure will act as a plug-and-play interface between Lockheed Martin’s simulations and the Air Force’s stringent airworthiness process. The aim is to meet the burden of proof normally required physically for a Military Flight Release.

Once approved, the aircraft-on-a-chip will be built to specification and flown at Edwards Air Force Base. If the physical twin matches the digital model, the aircraft-on-a-chip is a real airplane, at least from a research and development perspective. It can be updated and evolved using software processes without the time, cost, and environmental impact of physical world innovation.

However, Roper cautions, “It isn’t surprising this subsonic drone can be modeled in near virtual reality because it is anchored by significant physical world data. The original X-56A was built to collect flexible wing data because it could not be modeled from extrapolated rigid-wing designs. Model pedigree determines what can be a digital twin.”

The risk of over-extrapolation was evident in the 2022 Formula 1 season when new ground-effect regulations led to unexpected “porpoising” effects for many teams, including Mercedes. Taking over half the season to model, understand, and then correct them, Mercedes Tech Director, Mike Elliott, blamed a single simulation error: “If we hadn’t made that one mistake, we’d have a car that was winning the world championship,” Elliott said.

As Flyer Øne, and with it, aviation, now take to the digital skies, both new design speeds and technical risks will follow in its wake. But like Formula 1, clinging to legacy processes is a losing strategy. Even with new risks, design speed and cycle time win.

Istari Digital Press Contact: info@istaridigital.com 

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SOURCE Istari Digital, Inc.

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TriNetX’s Founding CEO Announces Plans to Step Down

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33 minutes ago

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January 9, 2025

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After 11 Years, Gadi Lachman to Conclude Operating Role, Remain on TriNetX’s Board

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — TriNetX, the largest global source of real-world data, today announced that Gadi Lachman, the Company’s Founder, President and CEO, will step down from his operating role on March 31, 2025. Gadi founded TriNetX in 2014 and has served as President and CEO in the succeeding 11 years. Gadi will continue to serve on TriNetX’s Board of Directors and will be an Advisor to Carlyle, TriNetX’s majority investor.

“It has been an honor to build TriNetX and be part of such an outstanding team. I want to thank TriNetX’s employees, customers, and shareholders for the support they have shown me. With the talent and passion of our people I am immensely confident in TriNetX’s continued success,” said Lachman. “Together, we have built the largest global platform for clinical research, with data from over 25 countries and tens of millions of queries a month. Our solutions are moving clinical research to a whole different level and saving lives on a massive scale, across all therapeutic areas.”

During the transition period, Jeff Margolis, a current TriNetX Director, will serve as Executive Chairman to ensure continuity in leadership and governance while a CEO search is conducted.

Margolis said, “I have had the distinct privilege of serving on the Board alongside Gadi and partnering with him for 11 years. On behalf of the Board, we thank Gadi for shaping and leading TriNetX to become the world’s top ecosystem of real-world data and real-world evidence serving life sciences and the broader healthcare industry. I look forward to working with him and the rest of the Board over the next months to execute a successful transition of leadership.”

Joe Bress, Partner and Global Co-Head of Healthcare for Carlyle, TriNetX’s lead investor, added, “We have been thrilled to partner with Gadi since our initial investment in TriNetX over four years ago. Thanks to his disciplined leadership, TriNetX is one of the few companies that has sustained profitability even during periods of high growth. Gadi has built the company up to an exciting point, paving the way for a new leader to take the business into its next chapter of growth and success.”

Through this leadership transition, TriNetX remains steadfast in its mission to advance global healthcare through the power of real-world data. The Board, leadership team, and employees are united in their commitment to driving continued innovation and delivering success for customers and partners, all while building on Gadi’s exceptional legacy.

About TriNetX, LLC

TriNetX is a global network of healthcare organizations and life sciences companies dedicated to advancing real-world research and expediting the development of new therapies. Through its self-service, HIPAA-, GDPR-, and LGPD-compliant platform of federated deidentified and anonymous electronic health record datasets and consulting partnerships, TriNetX empowers its global community to improve clinical trial protocol design, streamline trial operations, refine safety signals, and enrich real-world evidence generation. For more information, please visit TriNetX at www.trinetx.com or follow TriNetX on LinkedIn.

Media Contact
TriNetX
Michelle Fleming, Chief Marketing Officer
Email: Michelle.Fleming@TriNetX.com

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Stellus Private Credit BDC Announces $0.36 First Quarter 2025 Regular Dividend, Payable Monthly in Increments of $0.12 in January, February, and March 2025

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33 minutes ago

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January 9, 2025

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HOUSTON, Jan. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Stellus Private Credit BDC (“the Company”) announced that its Board of Trustees has declared a monthly dividend of $0.12 for each of January, February, and March, totaling $0.36 per share in the aggregate for the first quarter of 2025. The regular dividend of $0.36 per share will be paid to shareholders of record in January, February, and March 2025.

Summary of First Quarter 2025 Regular Monthly Dividends

Declared

Record Date

Payment Date

Amount per Share

1/9/2025

1/10/2025

1/31/2025

$0.12

1/9/2025

2/3/2025

2/28/2025

$0.12

1/9/2025

3/3/2025

3/31/2025

$0.12

About Stellus Private Credit BDC

The Company is an externally-managed, closed-end, non-diversified investment management company that has elected to be regulated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. The Company’s investment objective is to maximize the total return to its stockholders in the form of current income and capital appreciation by investing primarily in private middle-market companies (typically those with $5.0 million to $50.0 million of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)) through first lien (including unitranche) loans, second lien loans and unsecured debt financing, with corresponding equity co-investments. The Company’s investment activities are managed by its investment adviser, Stellus Private BDC Advisor, LLC.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included herein may contain “forward-looking statements” which relate to future performance or financial condition. Statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release, including statements about COVID-19 and its impacts, may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in filings by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission including the final prospectus that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

Contacts
Stellus Private Credit BDC
W. Todd Huskinson, Chief Financial Officer
(713) 292-5414
thuskinson@stelluscapital.com

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SOURCE Stellus Private Credit BDC

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MongoDB, Inc. to Present at the 27th Annual Needham Growth Conference

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33 minutes ago

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January 9, 2025

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NEW YORK, Jan. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — MongoDB, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDB) today announced that Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Michael Gordon, and Senior Vice President of Finance, Serge Tanjga, will present virtually at the 27th Annual Needham Growth Conference.

The MongoDB presentation is scheduled for Thursday, January 16, 2025, at 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time. A live webcast of the presentation will be available on the Events page of the MongoDB investor relations website at https://investors.mongodb.com/news-events/events. A replay of the webcast will also be available for a limited time.

About MongoDB
Headquartered in New York, MongoDB’s mission is to empower innovators to create, transform, and disrupt industries by unleashing the power of software and data. Built by developers, for developers, MongoDB’s developer data platform is a database with an integrated set of related services that allow development teams to address the growing requirements for today’s wide variety of modern applications, all in a unified and consistent user experience. MongoDB has tens of thousands of customers in over 100 countries. The MongoDB database platform has been downloaded hundreds of millions of times since 2007, and there have been millions of builders trained through MongoDB University courses. To learn more, visit mongodb.com.

Investor Relations
Brian Denyeau
ICR for MongoDB
646-277-1251
ir@mongodb.com

Media Relations
MongoDB PR
press@mongodb.com

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SOURCE MongoDB, Inc.

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