Autonomous Heavy-Lift Platform Launch Pairs With Composites Manufacturing Expansion

Tekever uses carbon fiber prepregs and other composites in its weight-optimized autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) including (bottom left, clockwise) the AR3, AR5, AR6 and future ARX platforms. Source | Tekever

Tekever (Lisbon, Portugal) has unveiled its AR6 family of heavy-lift autonomous aircraft and expanded its composites manufacturing partnership with iCOMAT (Bristol, U.K.) to support production of its existing AR5 unmanned system.

According to Tekever’s announcement, the AR6 expands the company’s autonomous portfolio into the heavy-lift class, positioned for civil applications such as logistics, medical support and disaster relief as well as military missions including casualty evacuation and crewed-uncrewed teaming. Designed and built in the U.K. with local SME partners, the AR6 delivers a U.K. sovereign solution for heavy lift autonomy, with production due to start by the end of 2026 in Tekever’s Swindon manufacturing hub.

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Leveraging distinctive propulsion technology, the AR6 features a maximum takeoff weight of 700 kilograms and is designed to carry 200-kilogram payloads over distances of ≈500 kilometers — a step up from the roughly 100-kilogram and 1- to 5-kilometer range that Tekever says defines the current heavy-lift eVTOL market.

The company attributes this performance gain to digitally controlled hydraulic pump and motor technology developed by Flowcopter (Edinburgh, Scotland) in place of the battery and electric-motor systems that typically constrain payload in larger-sized eVTOL platforms. “If you try to use conventional hydraulics, you do not have enough control and you lose a lot of energy,” explains Karl Brew, Tekever U.K.’s managing director, in a July 2026 Aviation Week article. He claims that with Tekever’s approach, "You save all your energy because you’re not losing it in the system."

Use of composite materials

“Tekever is using the best composite materials available — some developed locally, some sourced from further afield,” says Tiago Nunes, Tekever's platforms director, in an interview with UncrewedSystems.com about the company’s AR3 platform, first launched in 2022. He adds that every part of the aircraft — including wings, fuselage and other structural components — has been optimized to eliminate unnecessary weight and complexity.

Tekever uses autoclave-cured carbon fiber-reinforced prepregs because they provide an optimal fiber–resin ratio, but with a focus on putting material only where it’s needed. He notes that carbon fiber is a strong reflector of radar energy because of its electrical conductivity, while potential alternatives such as glass and aramid fiber are better in this respect but have lower strength-to-weight ratios. “Where we need radio frequency transparency, we’ll use glass fiber,” says Nunes. “For components that need impact resistance or specific wear properties, we’ll go with aramid. Every material decision is driven by the function of the part in question.”

Tekever says it consider resins as elements of the prepreg material, which it chooses based on the performance needed from the composite and how it works with the company’s autoclaves and processing parameters. Also in the UncrewedSystems.com report, Ricardo Mendes, Tekever’s CEO, adds that composites remain central to the company’s approach, even as it explores next-generation materials, including metamaterials now at technology readiness level (TRL) 7.

Manufacturing expansion

That materials focus runs alongside Tekever's manufacturing expansion. On July 22, Tekever and iCOMAT (Gloucester, U.K.), known for its rapid tow shearing (RTS) fiber placement process — announced an expanded partnership to support production and industrialization of the AR5 unmanned aerial system. The deal falls under OVERMATCH, Tekever’s £400 million industrial expansion program aimed at scaling manufacturing capacity and strengthening the U.K.’s sovereign defense industrial base. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to explore further collaboration on composites manufacturing, drawing on iCOMAT’s Gloucester and Swindon, U.K. operations (see these facilities in March 2026 news on iCOMAT’s expansion into the U.S.). Both companies are backed by the NATO Innovation Fund.

“Delivering autonomous capability at scale requires a resilient industrial ecosystem,” says Scott McClelland, deputy director of Tekever’s defense unit, adding that partnerships like the one with iCOMAT help strengthen the U.K. supply chain as OVERMATCH expands production.

Evangelos Zympeloudis, CEO of iCOMAT, says the companies’ shared backing from the NATO Innovation Fund positions them to show how technology developers and advanced manufacturers can scale capability together, and that iCOMAT expects its role to grow as AR5 production volumes increase and future Tekever platforms are developed.