Less than a year after its public reveal, an uncrewed cargo aircraft being developed by US start-up Grid Aero has made its first runway appearance.
Photographs released by the California-based company shows a prototype example of the Lifter Lite parked near a Lockheed Martin C-130 tactical transport.
Grid Aero is conducting early stage ground testing of the Lifter Lite, including engine tuning on 15 January.
The company says its twin-engined, high-wing design is meant to be a “companion” aircraft to the much larger C-130 transport, which is currently in service with more than two dozen operators across 23 countries.
“From rendering to runway in six months,” Grid Aero chief executive Arthur Dubois said in a post sharing the image of the Lifter Lite prototype.
Grid Aero revealed both itself and the early stage concept for its first uncrewed cargo aircraft in August 2025. At the time, Dubois described the Lifter Lite as a “pickup truck of the skies”.
While several other firms are developing medium-size UAVs for logistics support, most are vertical take-off and landing designs meant to operate independently.
These include proposals from Piasecki, Near Earth Autonomy and Airbus US Space & Defense focused on runway-independent rotorcraft that can provide ship-to-shore logistics, either via unmanned quadcopters or by modifying conventional helicopters for autonomous operations.
By contrast, Grid Aero is targeting a niche of longer-range flights and heavier payload capacity with a conventional take-off and landing design.
The company envisions Lifter Lite a sort of uncrewed wingman for cargo aircraft, somewhat akin to the Collaborative Combat Aircraft being developed to support conventional fighter jets.
“Lifter was designed from day one as a purpose-built companion to the C-130, delivering a market-unique combination of long range, meaningful payload and radically lower cost, optimised for autonomous operations in contested environments,” Dubois says.
“Not to replace existing platforms, but to multiply their effectiveness,” he adds.
In addition to military applications, Grid Aero envisions a commercial market for the Lifter Lite focusing on short cargo flights to underserved locations, where “conventional airfreight economics break down”.
That could include flights into unprepared or high-risk locations that would not normally be viable for conventionally aircraft.
