Wing will put up to $125 million in direct manufacturing investment over the next two years into a 15,000-square-foot drone factory in Fort Worth, Texas, a plant the company expects to have capacity to build tens of thousands of aircraft each year.

The drone delivery company announced the investment on November 6, 2026, saying the facility will create up to 100 new manufacturing jobs. Wing tied the spending to its plan to reach more than 40 million Americans by 2027 across nearly 20 U.S. markets, and named the upcoming release of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) rule as a driver of that expansion.

What Wing announced

Wing described the Fort Worth site as its newest manufacturing facility. The company said it is also investing in research and development and engineering in California and in the communities where it operates. The announcement did not give a date for the start of production in Fort Worth or name the aircraft model the plant will build.

Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing, said: “Drone delivery has become a global reality, driven by clear demand from our partners and their customers.” He said the United States is the company’s growth focus and that investing in drone delivery there advances American aviation innovation.

The company closed its announcement by saying its technology is ready to scale and that the future of aviation should be built, scaled and secured in the United States.

How Wing’s delivery network has grown

Wing began in 2012 at X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory, on the idea that a two-pound package could be delivered more efficiently than in a two-ton vehicle. In 2019 it earned the first Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate in the United States for drone operations. The company now serves major metropolitan areas from more than 70 sites, which it describes as the largest drone delivery footprint in the country, and says it has completed over one million home deliveries in the U.S. so far in 2026.

The 40 million figure matches the expansion Wing announced with Walmart. On January 11, 2026, the two companies announced that drone delivery would expand to 150 more Walmart stores over the following year, reaching more than 40 million Americans, with a network of more than 270 drone delivery locations from Los Angeles to Miami planned by 2027. That expansion built on existing operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Metro Atlanta, the region where the new factory will sit.

The January announcement named Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Miami as new service areas, alongside previously planned markets in Houston, Orlando, Tampa and Charlotte. Wing said at the time that its top 25% of customers order three times a week and that deliveries grew threefold over the second half of 2025 compared with the first half. Greg Cathey, Senior Vice President of Digital Fulfillment Transformation at Walmart, said adoption confirms “this is the future of convenience.”

The rules Wing is waiting on

The BVLOS rule Wing referred to had not been finalized as of November 10, 2026. The FAA announced the proposal on August 6, 2025, as “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations” (Federal Register document 2025-14992), with requirements covering operations, aircraft manufacturing, separation from other aircraft, operational authorizations, security, and reporting and record keeping. AirPro News covered the FAA’s draft Part 108 rule when it was released.

In a separate final rule on aircraft inspection programs, published in the Federal Register on November 10, 2026, the FAA said drone operations under Part 135 are a minority of such operations and will decline in number once its rulemaking to establish a new Part 108 for BVLOS operations is completed. AirPro News also reported on November 10, 2026, on the FAA’s BVLOS clearance for Skyways.

That same final rule, effective January 11, 2027, changes maintenance requirements for unmanned aircraft operating under Part 135, the framework of Wing’s 2019 air carrier certificate. Owners and operators of those aircraft may follow Part 91 inspection rules and choose either a manufacturer-recommended inspection program or one established by the registered owner or operator, as long as the Administrator approves it. Before the rule, the FAA granted exemptions and waivers to accommodate drone operations under Parts 91 and 135, generally requiring the aircraft to follow the manufacturer’s inspection instructions or to incorporate them into an operator’s approved maintenance inspection program.

What to watch

Wing’s stated targets for 2027 are more than 40 million Americans served across nearly 20 U.S. markets, and the Walmart plan calls for more than 270 drone delivery locations in the same year. The company has not disclosed how the up to $125 million will be spread across the two years or how many aircraft the Fort Worth plant will build in its first year.

The FAA has authorized Skyways to fly its autonomous V2 vertical takeoff and landing drone beyond the operator’s visual line of sight from Shell’s facility in Gibson, Louisiana, to a Shell platform in the Gulf of America. The agency said on November 9, 2026, that it is the first authorization of its kind for a drone flying beyond visual line of sight from the U.S. coastline over the Gulf.

The flight will include a pipeline right-of-way inspection and a simulated delivery of equipment to the offshore platform. The FAA said the flight would show how drones could support critical infrastructure and offshore operations, and that the authorization enables long-range commercial drone operations over the high seas.

A waiver, not a rule change

The FAA issued the authorization under Section 927 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024. According to the agency, that section lets it approve certain drone operations through a waiver instead of through rulemaking or an exemption, which gives innovative operations a pathway to approval.

Michael Kratsios, assistant to the President for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, said: “The Trump Administration envisions a future where advanced drone operations are routine.” He called the authorization an important step toward that vision and toward a regulatory framework for these capabilities.

Acting FAA Deputy Administrator Liam McKenna said: “The FAA is focused on safely unlocking the full potential of American drone technology.” He said the agency is working with industry to move beyond traditional operating limitations.

The wider BVLOS rulemaking

The Skyways approval sits alongside the FAA’s broader effort to make beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights routine. Executive Order 14307 on drone dominance, titled “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” and signed on June 6, 2025, directed the FAA to issue a proposed rule enabling routine BVLOS operations for commercial and public safety drones within 30 days, and said a final rule shall be published within 240 days of the order. It also gave the FAA 120 days to begin deploying artificial intelligence tools to help review waiver applications under 14 CFR part 107.

The FAA and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published the proposed Part 108 rule, titled “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations,” in the Federal Register on August 7, 2025. The proposal would set performance-based regulations for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operating at low altitudes beyond visual line of sight, and for third-party services such as UAS Traffic Management (UTM) that support them. It lists package delivery, agriculture, aerial surveying, civic interest, operations training, demonstration, recreation and flight testing among the uses it would cover.

Under the proposal, operations would be conducted primarily below 400 feet above ground level unless the Administrator authorizes higher, and unmanned aircraft weighing no more than 1,320 pounds would fall under an airworthiness acceptance process. The comment period closed on October 6, 2025. The proposal cites the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, the same law that contains the Section 927 waiver authority used for the Skyways approval.

Who Skyways is

Skyways, formally Skyways Air Transportation Inc., designs, builds and operates long-range hybrid vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and the software that flies them. The company says it has flown missions with customers since 2017 and is flying with customers on three continents. Its website pictures a V2 aircraft at Kumejima Island, Japan, in 2026, and cites completed base-to-base, offshore and island deliveries as well as shipboard launch-and-recovery testing, without dates.

The company’s website lists a V3 platform with a range of more than 1,300 miles, a flight time of more than 18 hours and a useful load listed as “Up to 100+ lb.” Skyways lists commercial and defense logistics, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, disaster response and asset inspection among its mission areas.

The FAA did not give a date for the Gulf flight or details of the V2’s specifications in its announcement.

Ondas Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of Stemme GmbH, the German manufacturer of the airframe used in its ULTRA long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, in an all-cash deal. Ondas announced the agreement on November 5, 2026, together with a plan to expand ULTRA production, including in the United States, to 10 aircraft per month by 2028.

The deal covers the airframe of a programme Ondas acquired in July 2026 with DZYNE Technologies. According to the press release, Stemme currently runs at approximately 25% of production capacity across its facilities in Strausberg and Pasewalk, Germany, and Ondas plans to raise that utilization while adding 345,000 square feet of planned airframe production space in the United States. The purchase price was not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals.

What Ondas is buying

Stemme is a German original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of motor gliders, special-mission platforms and uncrewed aerial vehicle aerostructures. ULTRA is built on Stemme’s type-certified S12 composite airframe. Stemme holds airworthiness approvals from EASA, Germany’s Federal Aviation Office (LBA) and the FAA, and operates an FAA Part 145 repair station, according to Ondas.

Its two German sites span approximately 135,571 square feet of design, production and maintenance space. Ondas said bringing Stemme in-house would strengthen manufacturing capacity and the supply chain for U.S. and allied demand, and reduce reliance on an external supplier.

“Acquiring Stemme would give us greater control over airframe capacity, cost and schedule,” said Eric Brock, Chairman and CEO of Ondas, adding that this supports the target of 10 ULTRA aircraft per month by 2028 and brings significant production capacity to the United States. “Our objective is to align aircraft production with the scale of customer requirements,” Brock said.

Koenraad Geurts and Benjamin de Broqueville, Co-CEOs of Stemme, said: “We are incredibly excited about our future with Ondas.”

The ULTRA aircraft

Ondas says ULTRA is operationally deployed by the U.S. Air Force and “is capable of more than 70 hours of flight time with over 400 pounds of payload capacity.” Its payload architecture supports electro-optical and infrared sensing, radio-frequency collection and communications relay. Ondas lists dual-use applications including border and maritime surveillance, disaster response, environmental monitoring and commercial infrastructure inspection.

The release argues that demand for persistent ISR exceeds available capacity, citing the U.S. Department of War’s mixed-fleet approach, which includes lower-cost, attritable aircraft that can be fielded at scale.

“Our focus now is building more aircraft, faster,” said Ryan Hartman, President and CEO of Ondas Sentinel. “Bringing Stemme into Ondas Sentinel would put the airframe, the engineering and the production line under one roof,” he said, so the company can respond faster to customer requirements and iterate the ULTRA design for future U.S. Air Force requirements.

How ULTRA came to Ondas

ULTRA joined the Ondas portfolio through the DZYNE acquisition, which Ondas announced on July 6, 2026. That deal was valued at $875.8 million, made up of $200 million in cash and about 85 million Ondas shares valued at about $675 million. Ondas described ULTRA at the time as a long-endurance autonomous aircraft that provides multi-day ISR over large areas, with tens of thousands of operational flight hours.

With DZYNE, Ondas created Ondas Sentinel, a division unifying its U.S. defense portfolio, led by World View CEO Ryan Hartman, with DZYNE co-founder Matt McCue as Chief Technology Officer. DZYNE’s portfolio also includes LEAP, IonStrike, Dronebuster, Blitz and the Grasshopper cargo system, which Ondas lists as carrying up to 500 pounds of cargo.

In its second-quarter results, released on August 13, 2026, Ondas reported record quarterly revenue of $83.8 million and an $18.8 million ULTRA order captured in July for an unnamed customer’s current operational need. The company put its pro forma backlog, including DZYNE and Cyberhawk, at approximately $757 million.

The Stemme agreement follows Ondas’ earlier purchase of UK-based Rotron Aerospace, completed on March 16, 2026, which added vertical take-off and landing platforms, long-range unmanned aircraft and aero-engines. Ondas said Rotron will serve as its UK-based go-to-market platform.

What comes next

Before closing, the Stemme deal needs customary conditions and regulatory approvals to be met. Ondas has not said where in the United States the planned 345,000 square feet of airframe production space will be located, or when it will open.