Skydio used its annual Ascend conference on September 23 to unveil the F10 Lightrunner, the company's first fixed-wing drone, alongside a robotic ground station called MegaDock and two new software platforms1,4[1].
CEO Adam Bry introduced the aircraft on stage in Summerlin, Nevada, with a live flight demonstration5. The F10 Lightrunner is rated at 100 mph, a 30-mile coverage radius, and up to 120 minutes of endurance2. At 15.4 lbs (7 kg) with a polymer-skinned foam airframe, the NDAA-compliant aircraft is designed to launch and land autonomously from MegaDock using a suction-based robotic gripper, requiring no runway and no ground crew.
"F10 Lightrunner is the most advanced fixed-wing drone that has ever existed," Bry said. "It will bring the benefits of Drone as First Responder and fully automated drone inspection of critical infrastructure to a scale that's never been possible before". The F10 Lightrunner is deploying to customers in 20276.
Onboard AI and autonomy stack
The aircraft runs on NVIDIA Jetson Orin and Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processors and carries six 50MP binocular navigation cameras built into the fuselage and wings, with obstacle perception reaching 300 feet. Skydio built two autonomy engines for the platform: Pathfinder, which charts routes prior to flight incorporating terrain, obstacles, geofences, and airspace rules, and Foresight, which adjusts the route in real time based on what the aircraft detects. The Skydio Airspace Assurance System ingests live ADS-B signals and executes evasive maneuvers if another aircraft approaches a collision path.
A design called SideEye mounts the camera gimbal on one wingtip rather than under the belly, keeping the wing from blocking the camera's line of sight. The gimbal rolls continuously without hitting a mechanical stop, using electronic image stabilization to keep the horizon level during banked turns up to 60 degrees. The payload integrates a 48MP telephoto camera (190mm equivalent), a 64MP narrow camera (46mm equivalent), and a Teledyne FLIR Boson+ 640 thermal sensor with sub-30 mK sensitivity.
MegaDock and fleet operations
MegaDock is a climate-controlled, IP54-rated container measuring 14.5 by 20.75 feet, weighing 6,900 lbs, that houses up to five F10 Lightrunner drones. The station can keep three aircraft airborne simultaneously while two charge on standby, with a 10%-to-90% recharge time of 45 minutes. An F10 reaches airborne status 20 seconds after a launch command. MegaDock requires a hardwired 200-to-240 V supply on a dedicated 100-amp breaker and a Cat6 network line. Bry said dock-based flying now represents over half the flying done by Skydio's customers.
Software platforms and fleet upgrades
Skydio also introduced Asset Command and Security Command, two cloud-management platforms available for purchase at Ascend with general availability in early 2027. Asset Command imports data from GIS and CMMS systems to plan and route infrastructure inspections automatically; AEP, Chevron, Dominion Energy, and Southern Company have been early development partners. Security Command dispatches drones with live video for continuous perimeter coverage across data centers, military bases, and correctional facilities, and now accounts for 15% of all Skydio dock flights.
Additional hardware updates include Controller 2, a handheld ground station with a 7-inch sunlight-readable display and 5.5-hour battery life, and the VT300-Z Rev 2 sensor payload for the X10 quadcopter, which adds ThermalBoost and low-light software enhancements.
ANALYSIS The F10 Lightrunner marks Skydio's move from close-range quadcopter autonomy into the fixed-wing segment, where the combination of AI-driven navigation, automated launch-and-recovery, and multi-aircraft dock operations targets a category of missions that multirotor platforms cannot physically sustain.