Milwaukee tech startup Aeroplicity launches blockchain-backed aerospace and defense platform

Newly launched Milwaukee startup Aeroplicity Inc. has created a blockchain-based aerospace and defense platform aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. The company’s “Traceability” application allows businesses to create digital twins of their documents, which can be shared through QR codes, eliminating the need for physical copies. The use of blockchain technology ensures the authenticity of documentation and improves supply chain transparency, speed and efficiency, the company says.

Jerome Miastkowski, founder and CEO of Aeroplicity, said that the demands of doing business as an aerospace and defense supplier are becoming increasingly complex. Mandates are transferred from the authorities to Tier 1 suppliers in space and defence. This in turn trickles down and affects smaller manufacturers and suppliers within the supply chain. “It’s very difficult to implement (these mandates) without a product like ours,” Miastkowski said. “There’s all these quality controls. There’s this whole set of requirements on the data security side. It ties into this other side, and now it’s starting to move into the lower levels of the supply chain.” Miastkowski earned his aeronautical engineering degree from Iowa State University.After selling his company CertifyNation, a maker of aerospace components, to Sussex-based The Angelus Corp. in 2016, Miastkowski moved to Wisconsin. He worked there for the last six years as part of the terms of the acquisition, eventually taking over IT for the company. It was then that he began to notice the increasingly strict mandates being passed on through the industry. These requirements can put smaller suppliers and manufacturers at a disadvantage since they do not have the time and resources that a Tier 1 supplier might have. With Traceability, users can conduct business as usual and meet the complex requirements of the aerospace and defense industries. “This system would allow someone to literally act on it along with some internal policies and say they’re fully compatible outside of their current systems,” Miastkowski said. When you upload a document to the Traceability application, it is written into a blockchain network. This allows users to verify that a document is authentic. “When you send it in someone else’s system, they know it hasn’t changed,” Miastkowski said. Aeroplicity is designed to improve supply chain transparency, speed and efficiency, making it easier for businesses to ensure compliance with aerospace and defense regulations and standards. With the Traceability (as a Service) application, businesses can easily access, share and request documentation in real-time, reducing the risk of errors and increasing the speed of transactions. The blockchain-backed platform provides a secure and immutable record of documentation, providing an extra layer of security and trust for businesses in the aerospace and defense industries. “When you use a system like Aeroplicity, (you can) attach a QR code to your shipment and there are hundreds of documents your customers can access versus having to print all of that out,” Miastkowski said. Now that Aeroplicity has officially launched, Miastkowski’s first priority for the startup is to earn sales. He plans to open a funding round in the near future. “My goal for Aeroplicity is that a small or mid-sized business can literally run aerospace and defense operations and be compliant across the board just by joining,” Miastkowski said. “The big companies design all this in-house, but don’t give anyone else access to it for their own use.”