Salient Motion retools certification timelines with modular systems

The company is working with Boeing on actuation systems and says it can certify components in months rather than years.

Salient Motion has developed modular motion control systems that it says can achieve certification in months rather than years. The aerospace and defence component supplier is working with Boeing to advance actuation systems using a reconfigurable platform that reuses certified components across programmes.

The company’s technology replaces traditional single-use hardware with a modular, software-driven platform that is upgradable and fast to certify. Founded in 2022, Salient Motion says it is moving through certification at a pace that is uncommon in aerospace.

“In aerospace, certification costs and timelines have always been the biggest drag on innovation,” says Salient Motion’s co-founder and CEO Vishaal Mali. “By modularising hardware and reusing certified software across systems, we're compressing development timelines and cutting those costs dramatically.”

The company has attracted investment from AE Ventures and is working with OEMs as development partners, rather than just suppliers. Mali adds: “Our modular platform lets aerospace evolve the way software does. Certify once, deploy everywhere. That’s the leverage modern aviation has been missing.”

Salient Motion’s platform uses standardised digital interfaces to reduce integration complexity and non-recurring engineering costs. The company says this helps lower development costs and shorten production timelines.

“We are focused on components where we can drive meaningful performance and cost improvements with our motion control technology,” says Mali. “By focusing on building cost-effective, certifiable systems for our OEM and airline partners, we’re able to provide a second source more efficiently than ever before.”

The company’s longer-term plan is to apply its modular platform beyond actuation and into other commercial aviation, defence and space systems.