Natilus is a

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

–based

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

company developing next-generation blended-wing-body cargo aircraft.

History

Natilus was founded in April 2016 by Aleksey Matyushev and Anatoly Starikov. The idea for Natilus was sparked after their

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

firm experienced challenges getting product out of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, leading them to the realization that cargo shipping is inexpensive but slow, while air freight is timely but expensive. The company was originally based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

and the original prototype was a

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

. In 2021 the company relocated to San Diego, California, to access aerospace engineering talent and a world-class

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

facility.

Market

Natilus targets an existing $197 billion global

air cargo Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail. Aircraft types Different cargo can be transported by passenger, cargo or combi aircraft: * Passenger aircraft use the ...

market, projected to grow beyond $210 billion by 2027, and the potential to tap into the $2.2 trillion global

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

ping market, projected to reach $4.2 trillion by 2031. Natilus is also targeting an existing $83.99 billion passenger aircraft market.

Aircraft

The design of Natilus’s blended-wing-body aircraft includes vertical tails and conventional landing gear. Natilus’s regional cargo aircraft, KONA, can carry a payload of 3.8 metric tons with a range of 900 nautical miles. Made of

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...

and fibreglass composites, KONA can be optionally piloted and is powered by

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...

s developed by

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...

. Natilus’s first passenger aircraft, the HORIZON, can carry a payload of 25 tons with a range of 3,500 nautical miles. The aircraft can carry up to 200 passengers.

Development

Natilus raised $750,000 of

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

from Tim Draper and was incubated at the aviation-oriented Starburst Accelerator in Los Angeles. In November 2017, Natilus closed a second round of

seed funding Seed money, also known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' suggests ...

from Starburst Ventures, Seraph Group, Gelt VC, Outpost Capital and Draper Associates. Natilus has announced two aircraft in production: KONA, a pusher twin-turboprop regional cargo freighter capable of carrying payload over , and HORIZON, a passenger aircraft capable of carrying over . In April 2023, Natilus completed multiple flights of the subscale prototype of its KONA regional aircraft. The company reported that Ameriflight has "agreed to purchase" 20 KONAs, and that total agreements cover 460 aircraft valued at over $6.8 billion. In February 2025, Natilus reported that Canadian charter airline Nolinor Aviation agreed to purchase multiple KONA aircraft.

References

External links