From a dusty field about 90 minutes outside of Austin, Skyways is running the most lean setup of a drone test site you might expect: a few drones, a generator, an RV and a Starlink dish. Yet from this patch of Texas grass, the company is trying to redefine what it means to be a drone company. The tl;dr? It’s a hybrid model.
“The end customer doesn’t care about drones,” said Isaac Roberts, Skyways’ chief commercial officer. “They just want results — move this from A to B.”
That mindset has quietly transformed Skyways from a manufacturer of long-range unmanned aircraft into something much more hybrid — part hardware builder, part software developer, part service provider.
“If we need to stand up the entire pipe, we’ll do it,” Roberts said. “We’ll sell, we’ll lease, but we can also operate.”
The new hybrid model for drone companies
In the broader drone market, that end-to-end approach isn’t the norm — yet. Most drone companies still identify as one of three things: hardware maker, software platform or drone service provider. But as evidenced by companies like Skyways — and proven by studies like the Drone Industry Insights Global State of Drones 2025 report — the boundaries between those categories are blurring fast.
The Hamburg-based research firm found that Drone Service Providers (DSPs) now represent 68% of the global industry, up from 64% a year ago. Hardware companies made up 24%, while software firms trailed at just 8%. But the report also highlights a growing overlap: more hardware makers are adding service arms, and more service providers are developing their own software to differentiate.
Skyways sits squarely in that middle ground — and Roberts thinks that’s the only place to be. “If you’re only doing hardware or only doing software, you’re going to get squeezed,” he said. “The market rewards companies that can deliver the outcome, not just the tool.”
Beyond the drone sale
When Roberts joined Skyways two years ago, the business plan was simple: build aircraft and sell them. That changed after one of the company’s first military clients — the U.S. Navy — asked Skyways to fly the aircraft it had just purchased.
“That’s when we realized we needed to train pilots,” Roberts said. “But that doesn’t scale well.”
So Skyways began operating its own aircraft fleets, creating a model more akin to an aviation logistics company than a manufacturer. Its aircraft are designed for heavy-lift, long-range missions, flying cargo routes that traditionally require small planes. “We’re competing with general aviation,” Roberts said. “We want to replace the pilot and replace the Cessna.”
A lean, connected infrastructure
At Skyways’ Texas site, there’s not much of anything besides a Starlink terminal beaming live data to laptops inside a trailer, plus some cows lingering on the field.
“Instead of needing a runway or a giant hangar, we just need a field, a parking lot, some fuel, power and Starlink,” Roberts said. “That’s all it takes to operate a Skyways hub.”
It’s a fitting image for a company that sees the future of aviation as decentralized and data-driven. CEO Charles Acknin describes the goal as a network of “micro-airports” — small, modular vertiports that can launch and recover drones anywhere with an internet connection.
“What if airports weren’t limited to one per city?” Roberts said. “What if there were hundreds? What if one was in your backyard?”
The Drone Industry Insights report shows why that kind of flexibility matters. The 2025 survey, based on responses from 768 companies in 87 countries, found that the industry’s biggest obstacles remain regulation, client acquisition and access to funding.
Skyways’ hybrid strategy — blending in-house aircraft, autonomous flight software and full-service operations — reflects that convergence. In a tightening capital market, recurring revenue through service contracts provides a lifeline.
“The companies that survive the funding crunch are the ones already generating revenue,” Roberts said. “We’re one of them.”
What to expect from Skyways in 2026
Skyways is preparing to raise capital in 2026 to scale its next-generation V3 aircraft and deploy its first three operational cargo hubs. It has already landed a proof-of-concept with Shell to explore energy-sector logistics by drone.
At the same time, the company’s minimalist operations and hybrid model — requiring little more than satellite connectivity and open airspace — could position it well in a market that is now defined by one thing: efficiency.
After all, the No. 1 reason companies use drones in 2025, according to the Global State of Drones 2025 report, isn’t novelty or safety — it’s “saving time”. That’s exactly the kind of customer outcome Roberts says Skyways is built for.
“We don’t want people to be impressed that it’s a drone,” he said. “We want them to be impressed that it gets there faster.”
As the industry continues its slow crawl toward beyond-visual-line-of-sight regulation under the FAA’s forthcoming Part 108, Skyways is already flying those routes abroad, in places like Japan and Europe. The company is betting that being operational before regulation catches up will give it a critical edge.
And while some competitors chase futuristic air taxis, Skyways is focused on building a sustainable business in the here and now.
“Hardware, software, operations — you can’t separate them anymore,” Roberts said. “If you want to make drones that work at scale, you have to do it all.”
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