AIR Partners With Elmo Motion Control for Cargo UAS Propulsion

Israeli electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) manufacturer AIR announced a strategic partnership with Elmo Motion Control on August 25, 2026, to integrate air-cooled servo drives into its Cargo-Heavy Lift uncrewed aircraft system (UAS), eliminating the need for heavier liquid-cooling systems.

In a press release, AIR detailed how the integration of Elmo’s technology will reduce overall system complexity and weight. This weight reduction allows the uncrewed cargo platform to maximize its 550-pound payload capacity for defense, commercial, and humanitarian logistics operations.

Technical specifications and propulsion architecture

The AIR Cargo-Heavy Lift UAS utilizes eight electric propulsion motors. Under the new partnership, these motors will be powered by Elmo’s Gold and Platinum high-voltage (HV) servo drives. The drives operate in a master-slave configuration, supplying 210 amps at 805 volts to each motor.

Rami Chanan, vice president of sales and marketing at Elmo Motion Control, noted that the compact, air-cooled design of the drives delivers exceptional power density while removing the necessity for liquid cooling.

“At Elmo, we’re passionate about helping our customers turn bold ideas into reality, and our collaboration with AIR is a perfect example of what’s possible when innovation meets engineering excellence,” Chanan said.

Production milestones and defense applications

The partnership follows AIR’s transition from prototype to production for the cargo platform, which completed its first flight on April 15, 2026. The aircraft is designed with a dual-use architecture intended for flexible logistics, mid-mile delivery, maritime resupply, and rapid aid deployments. It features a flight endurance of one hour.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) categorizes the AIR cargo aircraft as a Group 4 UAS. According to the company, over 25 units of the Cargo-Heavy Lift UAS have been ordered and paid for to date.

AIR chief executive officer Rani Plaut emphasized the operational readiness of the platform and the role of the new propulsion components in meeting regulatory and customer standards.

“Working with Elmo will ensure that the future of autonomous flight and unmanned logistics are as safe as possible, while maintaining capabilities and meeting requirements across defense, commercial, and humanitarian needs,” Plaut stated.

Expanding supplier network

The Elmo Motion Control agreement is the second major supplier partnership AIR has finalized in 2026. On June 3, 2026, the manufacturer selected Dynon Avionics as the exclusive avionics provider for its entire aircraft portfolio, which includes both the Cargo-Heavy Lift UAS and the AIR ONE personal eVTOL.

According to reporting by AVweb, Dynon customized its SkyView HDX platform to manage electric propulsion and energy management specific to AIR’s aircraft architecture.

AirPro News analysis

Thermal management remains a critical bottleneck in the development of high-payload electric aircraft. By transitioning to an air-cooled servo drive system, AIR is addressing one of the primary weight penalties associated with high-voltage electric propulsion. Liquid cooling systems require pumps, reservoirs, and fluid lines, all of which add mass and introduce potential points of failure. If Elmo’s air-cooled drives can reliably manage the thermal loads of an 805-volt system during sustained hover and forward flight, we expect this architecture will yield measurable improvements in the aircraft’s payload fraction and operational reliability in austere environments.

Sources: AIR via PR Newswire