Autonomous Cargo for the Navy: Shipboard VTOL Logistics at Scale | Charles Acknin & Isaac Roberts
The Drone UltimatumShow Notes
Today we’re joined by Charles Acknin and Isaac Roberts from Skyways, the Austin-based aerospace company building long-range autonomous cargo aircraft for real logistics missions.
We dig into why Skyways went defense-first, how they turned early Marine Corps interest into a long-running Navy contract pipeline, and what it takes to fly autonomous VTOL cargo off ships in rough conditions. The conversation gets tactical on the tradeoffs of VTOL and hybrid propulsion, plus what “scale” actually means when you’re building a 1,000+ mile range platform.
We also zoom out into startup execution versus fundraising, the realities of selling into DoD, and how automation is reshaping internal ops across defense tech.
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