# Skyways

> Skyways builds fully autonomous, long-range cargo drones that fly real missions for the U.S. military and the offshore oil and gas industry. Founded in 2017 by former Google engineer Charles Acknin, the Austin company self-funds full-scale flying prototypes so customers can watch the aircraft work before signing, and in 2025 it landed a $37M U.S. Air Force contract to move its 1,000-mile V3 aircraft from prototype to mass production.

- **Founded:** 2017
- **Headquarters:** Austin, Texas, United States
- **Founders:** Charles Acknin (CEO & Co-Founder), Chris Craighill (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~30-60 (roughly 30 in Central Texas, planning to roughly double over 2026)
- **Products:** Skyways V2, Skyways V3, Autonomous flight system, Temperature-controlled cargo delivery
- **Notable:** Secured a $37M U.S. Air Force AFWERX contract in 2025 - one of the largest awards to an autonomous drone company., Completed Project ULTRA: 12 days of autonomous cargo flights between two military installations in national airspace under real FAA oversight (Aug 2025)., Delivered temperature-controlled blood at approximately 4°C on autonomous military missions.

## Products & services

- **Skyways V2** — Operational double-hybrid VTOL cargo aircraft (helicopter-style takeoff, airplane-style flight; electric and fuel powered). Carries roughly 30 lbs up to about 450-500 miles and flies long-range logistics missions today for commercial and defense customers.
- **Skyways V3** — Next-generation aircraft carrying up to 100 lbs over 1,000+ miles with 20+ hours of flight time - enough range to cross the continental U.S. nonstop. Moving from prototype to full-rate production; expected in the field in the second half of 2026.
- **Autonomous flight system** — Fully autonomous navigation - engineers upload coordinates and flight plans; onboard sensors, machine learning, and computer vision fly the route with no joystick, controller, or remote pilot making real-time decisions.
- **Temperature-controlled cargo delivery** — Proprietary system for carrying sensitive payloads such as blood held at approximately 4°C, demonstrated on military resupply missions.

## Achievements

- Secured a $37M U.S. Air Force AFWERX contract in 2025 - one of the largest awards to an autonomous drone company.
- Completed Project ULTRA: 12 days of autonomous cargo flights between two military installations in national airspace under real FAA oversight (Aug 2025).
- Delivered temperature-controlled blood at approximately 4°C on autonomous military missions.
- Built 20+ aircraft and flown 1,100+ flights.
- Operates a 250,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in North Austin's Tech Ridge.
- Backed by Y Combinator (Summer 2017).

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Skyways announces plans to build the world's largest autonomous logistics fleet and roughly double its Austin workforce over 2026; relocating flight testing to a site south of Elgin.
- **2025-08** — Completes Project ULTRA - 20 autonomous cargo flights over 12 days between Grand Forks AFB and Cavalier Space Force Station, delivering 230 lbs including temperature-controlled blood.
- **2025-06** — Secures $37M U.S. Air Force AFWERX contract to scale V3 to full-rate production, plus a $5M debt facility from Leonid Capital Partners.

## Links

- Website: https://skyways.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyways-air-transportation-inc
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/skyways
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/skyways

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/skyways
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-19