Autonomous electric cargo plane builder Pyka this week delivered the first unit in a fleet of three Pyka Pelican Cargo aircraft on lease to AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of Air Force (DAF) and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Government researchers plan to use the planes, which have a 400 pound payload capacity and 200 mile range, in the U.S. Air Force's Agility Prime program, which was created in January in order to accelerate and “prime” emerging commercial markets by incorporating military interests to help advance new technologies in both the commercial industry and military capabilities.
Founded in 2017, California-based Pyka says its planes are able to takeoff and land in remote areas with minimal ground infrastructure, can be recharged in under 90 minutes, and require few personnel to operate. The deal with AFWERX marks its latest advance, following a $7 million tax credit from the state of California in 2023 and $37 million in venture capital backing in 2022.
Air Force researchers also said last week that they had run tests on a different model of autonomous cargo aircraft, having used autonomous planes from California-based startup Xwing in a military drill. Xwing said its planes transported mission-critical cargo with daily autonomous missions throughout the week-long “AGILE FLAG 24-1” exercise, logging over 2,800 autonomous flight miles to both military bases and civilian airports, including March Air Reserve Base, Vandenberg Space Force Base, Sacramento McClellan Airport, Meadows Field Airport, and Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
