{ "archive_path": "archive/1789639567.44727", "base_url": "www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics", "basename": "cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-17 10:06", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics.html" }, "domain": "www.twz.com", "extension": "", "hash": "QGC7ZCNPG957D8EBHYCA", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-17T13:34:22.366826+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789639567.44727", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-17T13:34:21.804179+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-17T13:34:22.917572+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789639567.44727", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-17T13:34:22.374428+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-17T13:35:22.711223+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789639567.44727", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-17T13:35:19.050711+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmp0hsaavq9", "https://www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-17T13:35:19.039053+00:00", "index_texts": [ "A new drone collaboration by Cessna owner Textron and autonomy provider Merlin Labs aims to offer the U.S. military a hot production line and a familiar platform for uncrewed aerial logistics, including in contested environments.\n\n\n\nThe product is SkyCourier UX, a drone version of the Cessna 408 SkyCourier that has flown for FedEx, foreign special operations forces and small remote commercial airlines during its six years of active service. TWZ previously covered how the SkyCourier would likely end up taking on military applications when it was first announced, which you can read here.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tIntroducing SkyCourier UX\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\nA partial full-size model on the show floor at the Air & Space Forces Association\u2019s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in Washington, D.C., this week showed a nose that opened with hydraulics to a cargo bay in lieu of a cockpit. We have seen this same front door conversion concept for uncrewed cargo-carrying helicopters as of late. This allows for easy loading of outsized cargoes without specialized equipment, according to the company, though it does not increase the payload. Like the original SkyCourier, it\u2019s good for about 6,000 pounds, or three standard containers.\n\n\n\n(Hope Hodge Seck) \n\n\n\nThe form factor of the uncrewed SkyCourier variant is otherwise identical to its crewed counterpart, with twin turboprops, a high-wing configuration and an aluminum body.\u00a0\n\n\n\nAs with the base SkyCourier, a major advantage of the aircraft is its optimization for loading and carrying standard pallets. This means that cargoes don\u2019t necessarily have to be downloaded, broken up and repackaged for movement to forward positions. This is a big logistical advantage and can speed the flow of critical supplies to where they are needed most.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThe aircraft\u2019s range is about 900 nautical miles, which the makers say suits it well for Pacific island-hopping, allowing for refueling stops on austere runways. It can take off on runways as short as 3,300 feet and land in just 2,500 feet, according to a spec sheet.\n\n\n\nSkyCourier can hold three standard LD3 pallets. (Textron) \n\n\n\nThe Textron/Merlin collaboration aims to differentiate itself with proven capability in the missions it intends to fulfill, along with the ability to roll out a new drone variant fast and one it can sustain consistently. Bob Gibbs, Textron\u2019s vice president of special missions sales, told reporters in a Monday briefing that the conventional SkyCourier was now fulfilling new orders, not previously announced, to deliver modified aircraft to foreign nations for medical evacuation, casualty evacuation and environmental protection.\n\n\n\n\u201cThe aircraft\u2019s being operated literally from the Arctic to the Amazon,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cThere are three different island nations in the Pacific that have airline fleets of them. We support our aircraft in 170 countries around the world. So, just like a Cessna Caravan or a Beechcraft King Air, they\u2019re ubiquitous. You find them anywhere, and we support them anywhere in the world.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe $7 Million Flying Box: Inside the Cessna SkyCourier\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\nWhile the 900-mile range can\u2019t take the loaded-up aircraft the nearly 2,000-mile stretch between the first and second island chains, Merlin and Textron executives said they don\u2019t need to accomplish that to make it effective.\n\n\n\n\u201cThis is the ability to disperse the forces among the second island chain \u2026 to do the island-hopping to be able to get to, whether it\u2019s Palau, Tinian, Saipan, pick your various islands there,\u201d Kyle Kremer, a retired Air Force major general who now advises Merlin, said. \u201cWith the range that it has, it has the ability to agilely move through there\u201d and connect logistics pipelines.\n\n\n\nSkyCouriers are flying all over the world, including in some very harsh environments. (Textron) \n\n\n\nThe autonomy package, Merlin Pilot, is already in use under a $105 million U.S. Special Operations Command contract to develop autonomy for the C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft. It\u2019s been flown aboard four different single and multi-engine airframes, the company says. A promotional web page for Merlin Pilot shows tanker-class and commercial cargo applications with developing and future capabilities.\n\n\n\nMerlin has also teamed with the Air Force to develop an AI copilot for KC-135 tankers that can decrease crew workload and even possibly fly the aircraft on its own in the future. TWZ reported on planned tests for these autonomy-enabled tankers in 2024, with the flights set to begin the following year.\n\n\n\nHowever, the Air Force has not confirmed the completion of any flight tests for the effort since. And on Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Daniel Tulley, commander of Air Force Mobility Command, appeared to confirm that the tests had never taken place.\n\n\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s some companies out there who have offered to develop things where they can bring a carry-on kit onto old KC-135s and other aircraft, but we haven\u2019t seen them test those successfully,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n\n\n\nHe added that autonomy technology may lack the maturity needed for tanker missions.\n\n\n\n\u201cAn optionally manned or an unmanned tanker at range, [at] the ranges we needed to operate at. It\u2019s a very large aircraft, and we\u2019re not yet to where we\u2019re employing fully autonomous large aircraft. But the technology, I would say, is there and rapidly getting there,\u201d he said.\n\n\n\nTulley did stress that the Air Force saw a need for unmanned aircraft in the last-tactical-leg delivery.\n\n\n\n\u201cI\u2019m wrestling with that as we develop an AMC strategy,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is absolutely room for some sort of autonomous or other small light lift capability, and that\u2019s just one domain in the air, right? This could be by sea, could be by land, but there is absolutely some requirement for distribution from those major points of debarkation.\u201d\n\n\n\nIn addition to autonomous takeoff, landing and navigation, and protection of the flight envelope, Merlin Pilot, the company says, has digital copilot human-machine teaming characteristics that include pilot health monitoring, gaze tracking and fatigue detection; pilot incapacitation and contingency response; and flight monitoring and assistance.\n\n\n\nA military variant concept of the SkyCourier. (Textron) \n\n\n\nSome of Textron\u2019s new features are making light steps toward autonomy already. Gibbs pointed out that the company\u2019s Cessna Citation Gen3 business jets now include standard Garmin auto-land technology.\n\n\n\n\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a different scale than what Merlin\u2019s doing as far as automation,\u201d he said. \u201cBut \u2026 as we develop new products, we try to future-proof them, and so that\u2019s where you get this nice transition between us.\u201d\n\n\n\nThe SkyCourier can cost up to $8.5 million, depending on modifications, and while the SkyCourier UX sports GPS-denied navigation and the ability to seek different flight paths to avoid danger, it doesn\u2019t have other built-in defenses. For contested logistics missions, it\u2019s not clear how much risk the services are willing to tolerate for a relatively small logistics payload capability. Kremer maintained, though, that a drone of this size could be a mission-saving capability when dispatched to austere locations. And, in a Pacific conflict, it may reduce demand on already-stretched C-130 transports, now the smallest platform capable of carrying standard containers and long overtasked.\n\n\n\nA U.S. Military C-130 prepares for takeoff at Pohakuloa Training Grounds, Hawaii, Oct 28, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Wyatt Moore / 28th Public Affairs Detachment) Spc. Wyatt Moore\n\n\n\n\u201cIf you can\u2019t get the spare tire, if you can\u2019t get the component, that small thing where you need it in these dispersed operations, they don\u2019t keep the big logistic supply chain built up in these locations,\u201d Kremer said. \u201cYou have to be able to get it where you need it, when you need it, and that\u2019s what this provides.\u201d\n\n\n\nNonetheless, the Air Force has a clear appetite for a capability like this. Last year, it signed a $17.5 million contract to put a Reliable Robotics autonomy package on a Cessna 208B Caravan.\u00a0\n\n\n\nOn Monday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach reiterated the Air Force\u2019s interest in unmanned aerial logistics platforms.\n\n\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re doing testing on them,\u201d he said in response to an audience question. \u201cWe believe that there\u2019s some value in that as well. It certainly could be valuable in the Pacific with the ranges that we\u2019re talking about, and so we\u2019re looking at several different options and evaluating them. But I would say nothing, no program of records just yet, but [we\u2019re] certainly taking a look at some demonstrators and the like to see what\u2019s available to us.\u201d\n\n\n\nNotably, China has made significant advancements in developing logistic drone capabilities, with reported successful flight tests of massive heavy-lift uncrewed aircraft, including a 7-ton cargo plane that\u2019s currently the world\u2019s largest uncrewed freighter to take flight. Among them is China\u2019s CH-YH1000, a medium-altitude cargo drone developed by the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics that boasts, like SkyCourier UX, a hatch in lieu of a cockpit for ease of flat-pallet loading up to a weight of 1.2 tons. These are just some of an increasing number of similar systems being developed in China that aim to take the crew out of lower-end logistical missions over short, medium and long distances.\n\n\n\nChina\u2019s big CY-8 uncrewed logistics aircraft undergoing testing. (Chinese Internet) \n\n\n\nThough Textron and Merlin have yet to build a SkyCourier UX prototype, Merlin CEO Matt George emphasized that the company had chosen to partner with Textron because they could start delivering aircraft fast.\n\n\n\n\u201cYou\u2019ll see over the course of the show a lot of concept aircraft. You\u2019ll see a lot of renders. You\u2019ll see a lot of people who have big empty factories all around the country,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I also want to be very clear about the fact that none of this matters without production \u2026 There\u2019s 14,000 Americans working in Wichita, Kansas, on a production line where these aircraft, at least in the crewed configuration, are coming off the production line. So when we talk about capability, we\u2019re talking about that capability and bringing that capability to bear soon, rather than in the future.\u201d\n\n\n\nNext in the development process, executives say, will be an optionally piloted version of SkyCourier that will allow users to develop comfort with the platform and open the door to further iteration.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThe Textron/Merlin team is also leaving its options open in terms of which U.S. military customer might find its platform most useful.\n\n\n\n\u201cI hope [the Army and Air Force] fight over it,\u201d Gibbs said.\n\n\n\nContact the editor: Tyler@twz.com" ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789639567.44727", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-17T13:35:17.064308+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-17T13:35:17.059778+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Cessna Cuts Cockpit Out Of SkyCourier Cargo Hauler For Uncrewed Logistics", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789639567.44727", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-17T13:35:17.014706+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-09-17T13:35:17.008112+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789639567.44727", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-17T13:34:22.924241+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "Cessna Cuts Cockpit Out Of SkyCourier Cargo Hauler For Uncrewed Logistics", "warc": null, "wget": "www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1789639567.44727", "newest_archive_date": "2026-09-17T13:35:19.050711+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-09-17T13:34:21.804179+00:00", "path": "/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "0580c142-812c-4f47-b8c0-b2898b419730", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1789639567-import.txt" ], "tags": ",pool,escalation,war-wiki", "tags_str": "pool,escalation,war-wiki", "timestamp": "1789639567.44727", "title": "Cessna Cuts Cockpit Out Of SkyCourier Cargo Hauler For Uncrewed Logistics", "updated": "2026-09-17T13:34:21.804002+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-09-17 13:34", "url": "https://www.twz.com/air/cessna-cuts-cockpit-out-of-skycourier-cargo-hauler-for-uncrewed-logistics" }