He started writing code at 11 from a bedroom in rural Washington. He joined Google X to model robot motion. Then he left to build aircraft that fly themselves - across banana plantations in Costa Rica, soybean fields in Brazil, and now, U.S. Air Force test ranges in Texas.
There's a specific kind of engineer who starts at 11. Not because someone told them to, not in a classroom, but alone - in rural Washington, writing code for remote clients before most of his peers had heard the word "framework." Kyle Moore was that kid, and the gap between that bedroom and the flight deck of a 1,320-pound autonomous aircraft spraying pesticide over Brazilian soybean fields in the dark is the story of a very deliberate set of choices.
Moore landed at Stanford for computer science, ran sections of CS 106, worked consulting gigs, and eventually made his way to Google - not the main campus, but the experimental wing where the interesting questions lived. At Google X Robotics, he worked on motion planning and simulation: the art of teaching machines to understand space, predict collisions, and move through the world without asking for permission. He didn't know it at the time, but those were exactly the skills he'd need for what came next.
"Pyka's goal is to provide society with a new form of safe, clean, and cost-effective transportation enabled by autonomous electric aviation."
- Pyka Company MissionIn February 2017, Moore co-founded Pyka with Michael Norcia, Chuma Ogunwole, and Nathan White. Four people, a backyard in Silicon Valley, and a question nobody had answered commercially: what if the plane didn't need a pilot?
Y Combinator accepted them that summer. By the end of the batch, they had "Big Bird" - a 400-pound autonomous prototype that would look at home in a hardware store and had no business flying over anything. It flew anyway. That was the proof of concept. Then came the Egret, a 200-pound crop duster that achieved the first-ever certification for a human-scale autonomous electric aircraft for commercial work - in New Zealand, which turned out to be a more navigable regulatory environment than California.
Moore's domain inside Pyka is the software that makes the aircraft safe to be near. High-speed motor control algorithms. LIDAR-based obstacle detection. The firmware stack that processes sensor data at speeds no human reflex could match and decides, continuously, whether the aircraft is where it should be.
The Pelican - Pyka's first production aircraft - entered commercial service in Costa Rica in 2020, spraying banana crops for operations that previously relied on crewed planes and the associated cost and risk. Moore's code was running inside it. By 2023, the FAA authorized the Pelican Spray for commercial operation across the United States, making it the largest autonomous aircraft ever approved for commercial use in the country. That record lasted until 2025, when Pelican 2 exceeded it.
Moore's title is "Software Fellow," a designation that signals seniority without administration. He leads development across a wide range of subsystems - from the lowest-level motor control loops to the perception stack that lets Pelican see what's in front of it. In a company that designs, manufactures, and operates its own aircraft, that vertical integration means Moore's code touches everything from a motor spinning at ten thousand RPM to a regulatory filing arguing that the aircraft is safe.
The $40M Series B in September 2024 - led by Obvious Ventures, with Piva Capital, Prelude Ventures, Metaplanet Holdings, and Y Combinator participating - wasn't about survival. By then, Pyka had FAA authorization, a manufacturing facility in Alameda, active contracts with Dole and Embraer, and a growing defense pipeline. The round was about scaling production of hardware that already worked.
Defense entered the picture in stages. The U.S. Air Force, through AFWERX's Agility Prime program, was watching companies like Pyka with interest. Pyka delivered the first of three Pelican Cargo aircraft to AFWERX for testing. Then came DropShip - a long-range autonomous platform capable of flying more than 3,500 miles and carrying 550 pounds of payload, designed for multi-mission defense logistics. Pyka received a U.S. Air Force contract for DropShip development in 2025.
Alongside defense, agriculture continued to expand. Pelican 2 - the world's largest autonomous crop protection aircraft with a 300-liter payload capacity - can cover 90 hectares per hour, a rate no crewed aircraft in the same class matches. Pyka secured major contracts with SLC Agrícola, one of Brazil's largest farming operations, and Heinen Brothers Agra Services, a major U.S. aerial applicator.
Moore speaks English and Spanish, which is not incidental when your aircraft are operating in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Brazil. Pyka is not a product company selling into agriculture or defense from a comfortable distance - it operates the aircraft, manages the regulatory relationships, and builds the next generation of the technology simultaneously. The firmware engineer who taught himself to code at 11 is now writing code that runs machines with no one at the controls.
Co-built the firmware stack running inside the largest commercially-approved uncrewed aircraft system in U.S. history - the Pelican Spray (1,125 lbs), FAA-authorized 2023.
That record was broken two years later when Pelican 2 received FAA authorization in 2025. Pyka holds both records simultaneously.
Developed high-speed motor control algorithms and LIDAR-based obstacle detection enabling autonomous operation in real agricultural environments, at night, without remote pilot input.
Helped grow Pyka from a Y Combinator garage project to a 120-person company with $10.4M revenue, four-continent operations, and an active U.S. Air Force partnership.
Software contribution spans the Egret (New Zealand's first certified autonomous commercial aircraft), Pelican Spray, Pelican Cargo, Pelican 2, and now DropShip.
Contributed to Pyka's total of $95M in funding across seed, Series A ($37M, 2022), and Series B ($40M, 2024) rounds from Obvious Ventures, Y Combinator, and others.
Began writing code at age 11 as a remote developer in rural Washington - no classroom, no bootcamp. Just a bedroom and a problem to solve.
Left Google X Robotics (motion planning and simulation) to build aircraft firmware. The skills transfer more directly than the job titles suggest.
Pyka's Pelican 2 can cover 90 hectares per hour. For context, that is faster than any crewed aircraft in the same class - and it does it in the dark.
Speaks English and Spanish, which comes in handy when Pyka's aircraft are operating commercially in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Brazil.
Pyka has held the FAA record for the largest commercially-approved autonomous aircraft in U.S. history not once but twice - first with Pelican Spray, then with Pelican 2.
Pyka moved from a Silicon Valley backyard in 2017 to a 110,000 sq ft historic aviation hangar in Alameda, California - without losing the original "build it and it will fly" energy.
Pyka builds autonomous electric aircraft for agricultural crop protection, commercial cargo logistics, and defense applications. Its Pelican product line represents the largest commercially-approved uncrewed aircraft systems in U.S. history. The company operates across four continents, has secured FAA authorization for commercial operations, and has active partnerships with Dole, Embraer, SLC Agrícola, Heinen Brothers, and the U.S. Air Force AFWERX program. Pyka raised $95M in total funding and reported $10.4M in annual revenue in 2024 with 120+ employees.
Pyka's DropShip is a long-range autonomous UAS designed for multi-mission defense logistics. Capable of flying over 3,500 miles and carrying 550-pound payloads, it can deliver 400 pounds over 1,000 miles fully autonomously, with a precision airdrop system accurate to within 150 feet. A U.S. Air Force contract was awarded in 2025 through the AFWERX Agility Prime program.