Introducing the Dark Matter® Star

18 December 2025
Dark Matter Star foldable drones with extended flight endurance

The Dark Matter® Star is a foldable drone that has been designed specifically for intelligence gathering purposes.

Its acronym stands for:

- Surveillance

- Tactical

- Aerial

- Reconnaissance

The aircraft is foldable for quick deployment and can integrate EO, IR or dual sensor cameras as standard.

It boasts an AI module too to help the operator continuously monitor the video feed, as required.

Made in the UK

The need for sovereign aircraft has never been stronger, and we are proud to say that the Dark Matter® Star has been designed and developed in the UK and is manufactured there too.

It can be configured to have an all up weight below 4kg or be able to carry up to 6kg of payload.

This capability is unrivalled in its small form factor.

Akhter-Clogworks Technologies Limited has recently moved to bigger premises in Yorkshire to increase production capacity and

we now have the facility to give demonstrations and conduct flight testing on our production site as well.



Quick deployment, robustness and modularity

The aircraft is quick to deploy thanks to its foldable design and can be transported easily.

The Dark Matter Star can be set-up in less than two minutes from its flightcase.

The battery is slotted in ready to activate and only when the power button is pressed is it ready to perform its autochecks and take-off.

Ready to go at the press of a button!

The antennae are fully integrated to the design to maximise robustness and user friendliness.

The landing gear is ruggedised and tailored for a smooth take-off and landing, either on automatic or manual flight modes.

As standard, the Dark Matter® Star can carry a range of EO or EO/IR dual sensors cameras.

 More options will become available soon.


Great design, endurance and weather resistance

The aircraft is constructed from parts carefully selected for maximum efficiency and performance.

Every carbon fibre parts ensures the chassis is as lightweight and robust as possible, the shape is aerodynamic and its construction method avoids unwanted oscillations while optimising damping.

The Dark Matter Star aerodynamic shape also ensures optimal flight time of up to 88 minutes (with biggest battery and smallest payload).

Electronics components have been tested in harsh conditions to ensure robustness to the elements and metal CNC machined parts are made of aerospace grade aluminium.

The payload bay offers additional weather protection to gimbals and cameras.

The aircraft can be relied upon in wide operational conditions and can be flown on GPS or manually.

This means it can carry aerial surveys planned as a mission or fly even in GNSS denied environment.
The aircraft and long range controller are housed in a weatherproof flightcase for easy transportation.



 

Great design, endurance and weather resistance

The aircraft is constructed from parts carefully selected for maximum efficiency and performance.

Every carbon fibre parts ensures the chassis is as lightweight and robust as possible, the shape is aerodynamic and its construction method avoids unwanted oscillations while optimising damping.

The Dark Matter Star aerodynamic shape also ensures optimal flight time of up to 88 minutes (with biggest battery and smallest payload).

Electronics components have been tested in harsh conditions to ensure robustness to the elements and metal CNC machined parts are made of aerospace grade aluminium.

The payload bay offers additional weather protection to gimbals and cameras.

The aircraft can be relied upon in wide operational conditions and can be flown on GPS or manually.

This means it can carry aerial surveys planned as a mission or fly even in GNSS denied environment.
The aircraft and controller are housed in a weatherproof flightcase for easy transportation.

GCS flexibility

Our Dark Matter aircraft are all Ardupilot based, harnessing the potential of an open source platform being developed by a global community.
With this, comes maximum flexibility for our customers, as some of the most popular GCS platforms are supported by our aircraft.

Our controller options tend to be android based, and offer radio frequency redundancy  and a radio line of sight communication of up to 40km.

Want to know more?

At Akhter-Clogworks we pride ourselves on being able to deliver bespoke solutions for our customers.

Want to see what we can do for your operation? Do you have any specific questions around our products?

Email us at info@clogworks.com or call us on 0330 0432714 and one of the team members will be more than happy to help.

Introducing the Dark Matter® hX and qD Gen 3

31 December 2025
The Dark Matter® hX and qD Gen 3 are the new 2025 versions of our proven aircraft. So, what's new? On the exterior, our striking design bares a lot of resemblance to the first generation. We have also kept the modular aspects, providing better flexibility and future-proofing for our customers. But don't let that fool you in to thinking that's all we have changed. Benefitting of years of customers feedback and continuous improvement as well as the industry development in avionics, sensors and batteries, these systems are better than ever! The payload capacity is improved further thanks to our new bespoke drivetrain and stronger chassis. These aircraft offer up to 84 minutes flight time each. The aircraft are designed for quick deployment; assembly can be conducted in a couple of minutes in the field without the need of a single tool. We can integrate gimballed EO, IR or dual sensor cameras to replace our previously fixed FPV camera, leaving the payload bay free for further sensors. The platforms are compatible with a wide range of payloads from partners we have been working with over the years and new ones. The systems can be configured with various tethers, cameras, Lidars or emergency response equipment, to name but a few.  These aircraft are therefore capable of conducting many aerial applications.
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