From a blank sheet
to a signed
release note
We are a build-to-print shop when that is what a programme needs, and a design authority when it is not. Most customers arrive somewhere in between, holding a requirement and a launch date.
One team owns the part
from sketch to shipping crate
Fisker was set up because the founders were tired of watching hardware get handed across four companies and lose its margins somewhere in the post. A Fisker part is drawn, analysed, cut, assembled, tested and released by people who sit within a hundred metres of each other.
That has practical consequences. Design changes come back from the shop floor in hours. The person who wrote the stress note watches the vibration run. And when something fails at 2 a.m. on a test stand, the people who can explain it are already in the building.
- Concept and feasibility studies, including trade-offs we will argue against our own products
- Structural, thermal, fatigue and CFD analysis correlated to physical test
- Five-axis machining, sheet metal, bonding and composite layup
- Harness build to IPC/WHMA-A-620 Class 3 and ECSS-Q-ST-70-08
- Assembly, integration and test in ISO 8 and ISO 7 clean rooms
- Qualification, acceptance and lot-acceptance test campaigns
- Obsolescence management and in-service support for 15 years after last delivery
Nine weeks from first meeting to a costed preliminary design
Longer if the requirement moves. It usually moves.
Seven groups,
one release process
Every discipline works to the same configuration baseline. There is one drawing tree, one parts list and one person who can approve a deviation.
Design & configuration
CATIA V5 and NX, with a managed PLM baseline. Drawings released to BS 8888, models to ASME Y14.41. Configuration control from Phase B onward.
Structural analysis
Nastran and Abaqus for static, modal, random and shock. Fracture control to NASA-STD-5019 where the customer requires it. Margins published, not implied.
Thermal & fluids
ESATAN-TMS and Star-CCM+. Radiator sizing, two-phase loops, cryogenic feed lines and the unglamorous business of bolted-joint conductance.
Mechanisms
Hold-down and release, hinges, dampers and gearboxes. Life testing to four times the on-orbit cycle count, in vacuum, at temperature extremes.
Manufacturing
Twenty-two machine tools at Rotherham, including five five-axis cells and a wire EDM. Aluminium, titanium, Inconel 718 and a growing amount of AlSi10Mg powder.
Assembly, integration & test
Two ISO 8 halls and one ISO 7 bay at Filton, with 5-tonne overhead lifting, cleanliness monitoring and a bonded store on site.
Quality & airworthiness
Independent of the programme managers, reporting to the board. They can and do stop a shipment.
How a programme
actually runs
We use ECSS phasing because most of our customers do. The reviews are real gates with real exit criteria, not calendar entries.
-
Phase 0/A
Mission analysis and feasibility
Four to ten weeks. We produce a requirements set you can argue with, a budget breakdown for mass, power and delta-v, and an honest list of what we do not yet know. Roughly one in five studies ends with us recommending a different supplier.
-
Phase B
Preliminary definition — PDR
Architecture frozen, interfaces agreed, long-lead procurement released. Analysis is at model level; test is planned in detail because that is where the schedule risk sits.
-
Phase C
Detailed definition — CDR
Full drawing tree, released models, a qualification plan with pass/fail criteria written down before anything is switched on. Engineering models built and broken.
-
Phase D
Qualification and production
Qualification units taken past flight limits until they fail or the plan is complete. Flight units built on the same jigs, by the same technicians, with acceptance test on every article.
-
Phase E
Operations and support
Launch and commissioning support, anomaly investigation, spares and obsolescence management. Our record is a 1998-vintage ground support unit we still hold parts for.
Approvals, and
what they cover
Certificates are easy to collect and easy to misread. Here is the scope of ours, in plain terms, along with who audits them and when they were last renewed.
| AS9100 Rev D | Design & manufacture — Filton, Rotherham. BSI. Renewed 11/2025 |
|---|---|
| ISO 9001:2015 | All UK sites. BSI. Renewed 11/2025 |
| ISO 14001:2015 | All UK sites. BSI. Renewed 03/2026 |
| NADCAP | Heat treatment, NDT (penetrant, radiographic). Renewed 07/2025 |
| EN 9110 (line) | Component overhaul — Farnborough. Renewed 01/2026 |
| Cyber Essentials Plus | Whole business. Renewed 05/2026 |
| Calibration | UKAS-accredited third party, 12-month recall, 100 % traceable to NPL |
Full certificates, our quality manual index and the current approved supplier list are available under NDA. Ask for the QA pack.
Quality is not a department here, it is a person with the authority to say no.
Bring us the requirement
you are least sure about
No obligation, no deck. An hour with two engineers and a whiteboard, usually within a fortnight.