San Francisco-based MightyFly as we speak introduced that it closed $10 million in funding, which it should use to scale manufacturing of autonomous hybrid eVTOL cargo plane. These MightyFly cargo drones declare that they will carry as much as 500 kilos at distances of as much as 1,000 miles.
After this funding spherical, the corporate has now raised $15 million complete from buyers together with Draper Associates, At One Ventures, and 500 World. Its plane is designed to hold 100–500 kilos throughout 600–1,000 miles with a number of stops per flight, all with out requiring floor infrastructure like runways or devoted touchdown pads.
That’s in distinction to most cargo drone corporations, that are focusing on short-range, last-mile supply (suppose Zipline’s medical drops or Amazon’s suburban packages). We’re additionally beginning to see corporations function long-haul fastened routes between established logistics hubs (suppose bringing substitute elements out to grease rigs in the course of the ocean). MightyFly is pitching one thing in between these two choices: middle-mile and last-mile B2B logistics that may flexibly path to a number of locations in a single flight. In the end their service is meant to achieve locations conventional air cargo can’t effectively serve.
MightyFly’s plane
To date, MightyFly has constructed three full-scale plane. With these, it’s accomplished over 400 autonomous flights.
Moreover, the corporate has obtained FAA Particular Airworthiness Certificates masking a number of flight areas, corridors and airports, which is a crucial step towards business operations. Nonetheless, it’s a great distance from the Half 135 air provider certification or kind certification that might allow really routine scaled operations.
So what occurs past these three drones it’s made? MightyFly says manufacturing charge “will scale in proportion to buyer demand” however wouldn’t give a goal for the subsequent 24 months
The eVTOL design takes off once more
As is the case with many supply drones (together with Wingcopter and Wing’s fashions), MightyFly makes use of a hybrid eVTOL design. As many supply drone corporations have discovered, pure electrical drones are difficult as a result of batteries can restrict vary (larger, extra highly effective batteries require extra weight which diminishes the return on what the larger batter presents anyway). In the meantime, conventional fixed-wing plane require runways, chopping into the pliability of the place drones can take off.
MightyFly claims their plane can execute a number of deliveries on a single route with autonomous loading and unloading capabilities.
The place the cash is at
MightyFly has generated over $1 million in income to this point. To date, its income has come solely from protection and authorities contracts — not business logistics companies.
The corporate additionally introduced a $220 million, 20-year letter of intent for intra-island supply and a just lately signed $50 million, 5-year healthcare contract.
MightyFly stated its expects to run its first totally revenue-generating business routes below routine operations someday in 2027.
Will probably be genuinely spectacular in the event that they execute, but it surely additionally means we’re nonetheless at the very least a yr away from seeing whether or not the enterprise mannequin truly works at scale.
MightyFly’s regulatory pathway
MightyFly presently operates below FAA Particular Airworthiness Certificates, which permit testing and restricted operations. These aren’t the identical because the Half 135 air provider authority wanted for business cargo operations or the sort certification that might allow mass manufacturing and routine flights.
The corporate stated in an e-mail with The Drone Woman that they’re “in discussions with the FAA and anticipate to share extra particulars later this yr.”
That’s the suitable place to be at this stage, but it surely’s additionally a reminder that regulatory approval stays one of many greatest gates between prototype and scalable enterprise.
How does MightyFly evaluate to different cargo drone corporations?
MightyFly claims there are “no different hybrid eVTOL cargo plane focusing on as much as 1,000-mile vary and as much as 500 kilos of payload.” That’s technically correct if you happen to maintain all three variables fixed (hybrid, 1,000 miles, 500 lbs), but it surely’s value contemplating among the different gamers within the house.
For instance, Zipline operates at shorter vary however has confirmed business scale with hundreds of autonomous deliveries, primarily for medical logistics. Originally of 2026, Zipline introduced it had raised $600 million in recent funding, valuing the corporate at $7.6 billion — a determine that makes the $10 million MightyFly simply raised appear to be pocket change. Zipline has stated that cash shall be used to broaden to at the very least 4 U.S. states in 2026, the corporate stated.
And maybe probably the most direct competitor to MightyFly within the long-range autonomous cargo house is Austin-based Skyways, which secured a $37 million U.S. Air Pressure AFWERX contract in June 2025 — practically 4x the dimensions of MightyFly’s complete funding to this point.
MightyFly shall be an attention-grabbing one to look at although given its mixture of vary, payload and multi-stop functionality. Most logistics drones are optimized for point-to-point or hub-and-spoke fashions. The power to do 3–5 stops on a single 600-mile route would genuinely differentiate them if it really works operationally.
So far as its value per mile in comparison with regional air cargo or floor expedited transport, MightyFly stated their value is “decrease than regional air cargo” however wouldn’t share specifics.
The protection angle
Like Wingcopter’s current pivot into protection manufacturing (which I coated earlier this week), MightyFly is explicitly positioning as a dual-use platform for each business provide chains and “mission-critical protection operations.”
All of their income to this point comes from protection and authorities contracts, which means that’s the place near-term traction truly exists. The $319 billion expedited-delivery market the corporate cites is overwhelmingly business, however protection budgets could also be funding the event that ultimately scales into business operations.
“Conventional logistics depends on capital and labor-intensive infrastructure that constrains pace, value, and reliability” stated Helen Lin, Companion at At One Ventures. “From early on we believed in MightyFly’s basically advantageous answer which nearly eliminates labor — the most important value driver for logistics operations as we speak.”
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