🇺🇸 The Air Force is betting $37 million on pilotless cargo planes that claim to do a $30,000 Navy helicopter run for $1,000 Austin-based Skyways lifts off on four electric rotors and cruises on a jet-fuel engine, and it's already flying parts to Navy destroyers, Baltic wind farm

🇺🇸 The Air Force is betting $37 million on pilotless cargo planes that claim to do a $30,000 Navy helicopter run for $1,000 Austin-based Skyways lifts off on four electric rotors and cruises on a jet-fuel engine, and it's already flying parts to Navy destroyers, Baltic wind farms and islands off Okinawa, with a next model built to haul 100 pounds over 1,000 miles. The catch is how little room for error it has. When an engine cylinder failed at 3,500 feet over North Dakota, the backup barely held: "Skyway's own engineers estimated it had about 10 seconds of battery life and the pack had visibly swollen." Cheap robot resupply is exactly what a stretched military needs, but margins that thin aren't ready for open ocean yet. Source: Interesting Engineering, AFWERX / Writer: Daniel