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Dealroom reported on 2 October 2026 that Certo Aerospace had raised £5 million to develop its Capstone heavy-lift drone toward an engineering baseline suited to repeat production. The funding details are a secondary report: no investors, terms or direct confirmation from Certo or investors are established by the available sources.
What is the Capstone heavy-lift drone?
Capstone, also styled CAPSTONE, is a large coaxial vertical take-off and landing uncrewed aircraft system (VTOL UAS). Its two coaxial rotors are arranged on the same axis, and the aircraft is designed to carry substantial payloads without needing a conventional runway. BAE Systems describes it as a heavy-lift UAS with modular open architecture.
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Certo says the aircraft has been flying since 2023 and describes the underlying intellectual property as UK-held. Those are company statements. The platform is being developed for defence and civil roles; the cited sources do not describe it as an aircraft in operational service.
What performance has been published?
Published figures vary by source and configuration. A payload figure should not be treated as a guarantee that the aircraft can carry that load for the longest published range or endurance: the sources do not provide one combined performance profile covering all three.
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| Source and configuration | Published figures | How to read them |
|---|---|---|
| BAE Systems, Capstone page published 3 June 2026 | 280kg maximum payload; 10 hours maximum endurance; 300 miles maximum range | BAE’s figures for the Capstone integration configuration; the source does not establish that all maxima apply simultaneously. |
| Certo Aerospace site material, 2026 | Up to 300kg payload | A manufacturer claim; not the same published maximum as BAE’s 280kg figure. |
| Certo Aerospace cargo examples, 2026 | 91kg over 200km; 272kg over a 70km radius of action | Two separate manufacturer-published load-and-distance examples, not a general range rating for every payload. |
For civil and commercial cargo, Certo describes an internal pod rated at 250kg-plus, with dimensions of 2.4m × 1m × 0.8m. The company says the pod is compatible with half-height JMIC and SkyHook systems. These are integration details published by Certo, not independent performance assessments.
What has Capstone demonstrated?
Logistics and CASEVAC trials
In an announcement dated 6 January 2026, Certo said the Ministry of Defence awarded it a contract to demonstrate uncrewed logistics and casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) capabilities under Project MORRIGHAN. The company said Phase 2 flights took place at Keevil Airfield in December 2025.
Certo reported demonstrations of pickup, transit and drop-off using three carriage approaches: Skylift TEUCAN/SkyHook, an Aether Aerospace winch system and Blackspace Technology’s Rapid-ACE carriage system. The flight tasks included autonomous take-off, climb, waypoint navigation, descent and precision landing. These trials show work on payload handling and flight automation; they do not establish routine operational use.
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Certo said Capstone took part in an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) technology demonstration for the Royal Navy at Keevil Airfield on 23 February 2026. According to the company, the aircraft carried a representative mix of sonobuoys for more than two hours. The demonstration also integrated General Dynamics Mission Systems’ UYS-506 acoustic processor and routed processed sonobuoy data through ground-control systems.
Certo’s announcement says QinetiQ supplied sonobuoy data through its sonobuoy data creator, and that transatlantic command and control and data transmission using Starlink SATCOM were demonstrated. This describes a test of an integrated capability, not a deployed ASW service.
What does the Project NYX milestone mean?
BAE Systems says its FalconWorks unit is working with Certo on Capstone as an aircraft intended to operate alongside crewed helicopters. BAE also says the joint Certo–BAE offering was down-selected by the UK Ministry of Defence for Project NYX, a British Army programme for next-generation autonomous systems intended to operate alongside Apache attack helicopters.
BAE gives 2030 as the target for initial operational capability (IOC) of the wider NYX programme. That is a programme target, not a guaranteed Capstone delivery date, confirmation of procurement, or evidence that the aircraft is already in service.
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The public evidence points to a development aircraft with flight trials, payload demonstrations and programme activity—not confirmed repeat production. Dealroom framed the reported £5 million raise as funding to accelerate development toward an engineering baseline suitable for repeat production. That production framing should be attributed to Dealroom; the available material does not establish a company-announced production schedule.
Moving from demonstrations to repeatable manufacture typically means resolving more than whether an aircraft can fly a mission. The design, integrations, manufacturing processes and supply chain need to be sufficiently defined and repeatable. The cited sources do not disclose Certo’s production capacity, unit cost, production start date or signed commercial orders, so none can be inferred from the funding report or demonstrations.
Which markets does Certo say it is targeting?
Certo identifies logistics, construction, firefighting, CASEVAC, maritime services and defence as intended applications. The company has described construction as the first commercial use it expects to pursue. These are stated ambitions, not evidence of customer demand, a commercial deployment or confirmed orders.
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