EmbraerX announced a partnership with the United States-based autonomous aviation startup Pyka on September 23, 2021, to research and develop the future of autonomous aerial agriculture operations.

“EmbraerX is a market accelerator committed to developing solutions that can transform the world and inspire our partners by approaching unprecedented ideas with creativity and grit,” said Daniel Moczydlower, head of EmbraerX.

The partnership is intended to focus on certification, operations, and future commercialization of Pyka’s Pelican, a 100% electric and autonomous fixed-wing agricultural aircraft.

“Pyka’s innovation and technology capacity is aligned with our strategy to accelerate the creation of innovative business models through partnerships that have the potential for exponential growth,” added Moczydlower.

Both organizations aim to pursue opportunities to accelerate and scale commercial services as autonomous aircraft operations in Brazil in the upcoming years.

“We’re incredibly excited to team up with one of the world’s largest aerospace companies to enable our vision of bringing electric aircraft into everyday use,” said Michael Norcia, CEO, and co-founder at Pyka.

EmbraerX is the innovation and development arm of Embraer focused on creating solutions to transform the aviation industry. 

“We look forward to working with EmbraerX to further integrate autonomous electric aircraft into the agriculture industry and the broader economy,” added Norcia.

Pyka is famed to have developed the world’s first and only commercially certified 100% autonomous electric airplane, having flown 3,000 autonomous agricultural aviation missions.