{"id":8684,"date":"2026-09-02T12:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/8684\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:44:18","slug":"tekever-acquires-flowcopter-following-ar6-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/8684\/","title":{"rendered":"Tekever acquires Flowcopter following AR6 reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AR6-430x241.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    Model of AR6 heavy-lift UAS at Farnborough International Air Show 2026. Credit: Tekever.<\/p>\n<p>Portugal\u2019s leading UAS builder, Tekever, has acquired Scotland\u2019s Flowcopter according to a 1 September press release<\/p>\n<p>The rationale behind the move is to harness the company\u2019s novel hydraulic transmission capability for heavy-lift UAS<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Tekever\u2019s newly unveiled AR6 system relies on this novel propulsion system<\/p>\n<p class=\"drop-cap\">Tekever has acquired Flowcopter, a Scottish aerospace company, already a close supplier in its uncrewed aerial system (UAS) component supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>The move brings Flowcopter\u2019s digital hydraulic transmission technology under Tekever\u2019s control as the UAS builder brings its latest AR6 system to market. This latest system was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tekever.com\/news\/tekever-unveils-ar6-a-new-family-of-autonomous-systems-for-heavy-lift\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">first unveiled<\/a> at the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2026, where the company displayed a scale model.<\/p>\n<p>Production is already scheduled to begin by the end of this year at Tekever\u2019s Swindon facility.<\/p>\n<p>Hydraulic propulsion<\/p>\n<p>The novel propulsion architecture enables this extended capability, Tekever claim.<\/p>\n<p>It provides greater payload capacity, longer range and reliable performance beyond the supposed limitations of other heavy-lift electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) quadcopter systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy combining a lightweight and rugged hydraulic system with a new generation of digital hydraulic pump technology, AR6 is designed to deliver greater control and efficiency while avoiding reliance on rare earth magnets,\u201d a Tekever executive told this reporter at the time of the unveiling.<\/p>\n<p>Up until now, he continued, the market has been dominated by short-range eVTOL systems, \u201ccreating a gap between tactical re-supply drones and larger crewed aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This expansion is part of the OVERMATCH, Tekever\u2019s long-term, \u00a3400m ($540.7m) investment programme expanding sovereign autonomy capabilities in the UK. The acquisition will preserve Flowcopter\u2019s engineering presence in Edinburgh under the Tekever brand.<\/p>\n<p>AR6 family<\/p>\n<p>The AR6 family will deliver market leading payload capacity and endurance capable of lifting 200kg over 500km.<\/p>\n<p>Military use cases include casualty evacuation, forward logistics, and combat wingman concepts \u2013 such the UK Apache teaming concept under Project Nyx.<\/p>\n<p>Although the executive did not comment on specific platform submissions, they did assert that the project illustrates the type of mission and crewed-uncrewed teaming concept that AR6 \u201chas been designed to support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Notwithstanding any programme of record, the heavy-lift platform is designed with a focus on enabling a broad range of civilian and military missions, including logistics, offshore operations, medical support, search and rescue, disaster relief, forward logistics, casualty evacuation and combat wingman concepts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.army-technology.com\/wp-content\/themes\/goodlife-wp-B2B\/assets\/images\/newsletter-new.svg\" alt=\"Email newsletter icon\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n                    Sign up for our daily news round-up!<br \/>\n                    Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.\n                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Model of AR6 heavy-lift UAS at Farnborough International Air Show 2026. Credit: Tekever. Portugal\u2019s leading UAS builder, Tekever,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-8684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-defence-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}