Skyways secures $37 million US Air Force contract to rapidly scale autonomous cargo drones

Skyways, a designer and manufacturer of long-range autonomous unmanned cargo aircraft systems, announced today it has received an award for a total amount of $37 million from the U.S. Air Force's (USAF) AFWERX to transition its existing V3 aircraft from prototype to full-rate production. With the funding, Skyways will continue building its autonomy stack, finalize the V3 production design and ramp up for mass manufacturing, targeting the deployment of thousands of V3 aircraft across defense and commercial applications. This initiative aims to establish Skyways' platform as the Program of Record for unmanned aerial logistics.

Skyways is redefining cargo transport with a new class of uncrewed, affordable, and ultra-efficient aircraft, positioned to transform a global logistics market worth hundreds of billions annually. By combining advanced autonomy with a design optimized for mass production, the company enables cost-effective, scalable logistics in areas where traditional aviation is too costly or risky, unlocking massive commercial and defense opportunities.

"Skyways is landing contracts well above its weight class and that’s no accident,” stated Charles Acknin, Co-Founder and CEO of Skyways. “Our approach is different from most companies as we self-fund building and flying full-scale aircraft early during development so prospective customers can see real capability, not a slide deck. We’ve figured out a way to do it rapidly and at low cost. This approach is what helped secure this USAF contract and now best positions us to scale production.”

Skyways’ goal in the next 5 years is to build the world’s largest fleet of autonomous logistics aircraft, pairing flight-proven autonomy with designs ready for mass production. Skyways V2, already flying long-range logistics missions with Skyways customers, has a useful load of 30 lbs and a maximum range of 500 miles. The Skyways V3 aircraft builds on the success of V2 by reusing the same autonomy stack but with significant performance upgrades: 100 lbs of useful load, over 1000 miles in maximum range, and over 20 hours of flight time. Both aircraft use a double-hybrid configuration: they can take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane, using both electric and fuel energy.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.