The right to look up and wonder

Engineering done right. Education for everyone. Manufacturing with purpose.

Why "Kilia"?

At the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologists discovered a remarkable type of figurine at the site of Kilia, on the Gallipoli peninsula in Eastern Thrace. Dating to approximately 4360 to 3500 BCE, these Chalcolithic figures are known as "stargazers" because of the strong backwards tilt of the head, with eyes looking upward to the sky.

The Greeks call them "Ο ατενίζων τ' άστρα", the one who gazes at the stars.

Complete stargazer figurines are extraordinarily rare. Only about 15 intact pieces exist worldwide. They predate the famous Cycladic art by millennia and represent some of the earliest known expressions of the human impulse to look upward, to wonder, to seek understanding beyond the immediate horizon.

That's the spirit behind Kilia. We believe that curiosity should be nurtured, not gatekept. That engineering knowledge belongs to everyone willing to learn. We apply methods typically reserved for academic research, rarefied gas dynamics, hypersonic aerothermodynamics and design optimization, to solve real engineering problems. No shortcuts, no black-box solutions. Just rigorous engineering that works.

Kilia type figurine (stargazer) from the Chalcolithic period

Figurine of the Kilia type ("stargazer")
Gallipoli peninsula, Eastern Thrace
c. 4360 to 3500 BCE
Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens

Specialists, not generalists

Kilia is an engineering practice built around a single technical core: the behaviour of gases at high speed and low density, and what that physics demands of the hardware that has to survive it. We work at both ends — the simulation that tells you what a design will do, and the manufacturing that turns that answer into a part.

Those two halves are deliberately under one roof. Load cases, thermal environments and flow exposure come out of the analysis and go directly into material selection, topology and build strategy. A part leaves here having been engineered for its application, not merely printed from a file.

Every engagement is run end to end by the same engineer. The person who scopes your problem is the person who runs the solver, checks the convergence, chooses the material and signs off the part. Nothing is lost in a handover, and there is no layer between you and the work.

The standard doesn't move with the size of the job. On the simulation side: grid and statistical convergence, sensitivity to modelling assumptions, code-to-code verification, and a validation reference wherever one exists. On the manufacturing side: identified material batches, documented build parameters, inspection records, and certificates of conformance where the application calls for them.

Engineering leadership

Portrait of Dr. Angelos Klothakis, founder of Kilia Engineering

Angelos Klothakis, PhD

Founder & Principal Engineer · Chania, Crete

Kilia's engineering work is led by Angelos Klothakis, PhD, whose research at the Technical University of Crete spans rarefied gas dynamics, hypersonic aerothermodynamics, and the stability of high-speed boundary layers. That research has been supported by, among others, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence Centre of Excellence, and the Technion Center for High-Speed Flight.

It includes the open validation campaign for SPARTA, the massively parallel DSMC solver — from fundamental benchmarks through to full hypersonic vehicle configurations. The verification standards established in that work are the ones every Kilia project is held to.

Selected publications

All publications →

Selected work

  • 2025 – present · Technical University of Crete and Technion, Center for High-Speed Flight

    Next-generation waveriders

    Waverider designs carried from geometry to flight validation, jointly with the Technion's Center for High-Speed Flight. The simulation work spans continuum and kinetic regimes, global stability analysis for transition prediction, and correlation against Ludwieg tube experiments.

  • 2023 – 2025 · Integrated Air and Missile Defence Centre of Excellence

    Hypersonic signature and detectability

    Designed and simulated advanced waverider geometries to characterise thermal signature and aerodynamic footprint, translating high-speed flow physics into detectability assessments.

  • 2020 – 2023 · Office of Naval Research, University of Liverpool, Technical University of Crete

    Shock–boundary layer instabilities

    Three-year programme on unsteady shock–boundary layer interaction in hypersonic flow. Developed multiscale models bridging continuum and kinetic methods; the linear stability publications above come out of this work.

The facility

Parts are produced in-house in Chania. High-temperature FFF covers PEEK, PEKK, PPA and flame-retardant grades. Large-format SLA handles fine features and pattern work, with dedicated wash and cure stations rather than a bench and a timer. Feedstock is dried before printing and held in low humidity between jobs — with PEEK and the engineering nylons, moisture is the difference between a part that meets its specification and one that only looks like it does. Dimensional inspection is carried out on a metrology-grade scanner.

High-temperature FFF
INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 310 ApolloPEEK · PEKK · PPA · FR grades
Large-format SLA
Formlabs Form 4LWith Form Wash L and Form Cure L
Inspection
Revopoint MetroY Ultra, CMM EditionDimensional verification per job
Material drying
Memmert UF55+ ovenPre-print conditioning
Material storage
Totech SD+ 702-22Low-humidity feedstock storage

What we believe

Knowledge should be free

Engineering education shouldn't be locked behind paywalls. Kilia Academy is free because we believe everyone deserves access to the knowledge that helps them build, create, and understand.

Engineering first

We're engineers, not just service providers. We don't just run simulations or print parts. We understand your problem, question your assumptions, and help you find the right solution.

Rigor matters

From low-Mach unsteady flows to rarefied gas dynamics, we bring the same commitment to quality. Convergence verification, validation, code-to-code comparison: the details matter.

Accessible excellence

Advanced capabilities shouldn't be reserved for those with the biggest budgets. Whether you are a serious hobbyist, a startup, a research lab, or a defense program, you get the same rigor and depth.

Three pillars, one mission

Simulate. Optimize. Build.

Engineering Services

Rarefied gas dynamics and DSMC where continuum breaks down. Hypersonic aerothermodynamics, compressible and unsteady flow simulation across the full speed range. Design and topology optimization for additive manufacturing.

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Manufacturing

Engineering driven additive manufacturing with high-performance polymers. We understand your application, recommend the right material, and deliver parts built to perform — not just to print. From single prototypes to production runs.

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Kilia Academy

Free educational content on CFD, optimization, and applied engineering. Written by engineers, for everyone. We teach the intuition first, then the equations, because understanding beats memorization.

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Ready to work together?

Whether you have a project, a question, or just want to connect, we'd love to hear from you.

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