GoKawiil
Tech News
California startup Pyka has built electric, cockpit-free fixed-wing aircraft that spray crops and deliver cargo, with about a dozen already flying missions over cotton and soybean fields in Brazil, work previously done by human pilots. The company is testing software updates at a site near San Francisco Bay while eyeing an eventual expansion into passenger flights along US coastlines.
Bengaluru startup Alteon, founded by 20-year-old Samay Sanghvi, secured $2.5 million in pre-seed funding led by investor Lachy Groom, with Together Fund also participating. The company is developing small autonomous fixed-wing aircraft that mimic albatross flight patterns to extract energy from ocean wind shear, aiming to keep planes airborne for over a year without traditional fuel or battery limits. Alteon has tested its autonomous flight system over the Bay of Bengal but has not yet proven sustained flight purely from harvested wind energy.