Black Swift Technologies Creates Research Drones Tough Enough for Volcanoes
Customer Company Size
SME
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Onshape
- Black Swift S2
- SOLIDWORKS
Tech Stack
- Cloud-Native CAD
- Linux
- Onshape Branching and Merging
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Innovation Output
- Customer Satisfaction
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
Applicable Industries
- Aerospace
- National Security & Defense
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Remote Asset Management
- Digital Twin
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Black Swift Technologies (BST) is a Colorado-based company specializing in the design and manufacture of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for scientific missions in extreme conditions. Their drones are used for monitoring and assessing environments such as the Arctic landscape, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and volcanoes. BST frequently collaborates with government agencies like NASA, NOAA, and USGS to build better models of turbulent environments, providing more accurate predictions of danger levels and event severity. The company's advanced aerial research platform, the Black Swift S2, has been instrumental in projects like the East Greenland Ice-Core Project, which studies the Greenland Ice Sheet and its impact on future sea-level changes. BST's commitment to innovation and safety in extreme conditions makes them a key player in the aerospace industry.
The Challenge
Black Swift Technologies (BST) designs and manufactures unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for scientific missions in extreme conditions. The BST product development team faced significant challenges with their previous on-premise CAD system, particularly with version management. The inability to revert to earlier iterations of drone designs led to wasted time and effort, as engineers were forced to recreate previous work. This inefficiency was a major hindrance, especially given the demanding environments in which their drones operate, such as the Arctic, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and volcanoes. The need for a more efficient and reliable CAD system became evident as BST sought to improve their design process and better support their research missions.
The Solution
To address the challenges with their previous CAD system, Black Swift Technologies switched to Onshape, a cloud-native product development platform. Onshape's built-in data management features, such as 'unlimited undo/redo' and comprehensive edit history, allowed BST engineers to revert to any prior stage of their drone designs instantly. This capability eliminated the inefficiencies and frustrations associated with version control in their previous system. Additionally, Onshape's Branching and Merging feature enabled the BST team to explore different design ideas in separate branches and merge the best ideas into one model. This encouraged more experimentation without the risk of impacting the original design. Onshape's portability was another significant advantage, as it allowed BST to run the CAD software on nearly any device or operating system, including Linux, which they use for software development. This flexibility eliminated the need for high-performance PCs dedicated to running CAD, further streamlining their design process.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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