Farnborough 2026: Tekever unveils AR6 heavy-lift UAV at centre of Project Nyx aspirations

Tekever's AR6 heavy-lift UAV baseline prototype, unveiled at Farnborough 2026. (Janes/Tom Barton)

Portuguese-UK unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) maker Tekever unveiled a prototype of its AR6 heavy-lift UAV, the first of a future AR6 family, at the Farnborough International Airshow 2026, held from 20-24 July.

The four-rotor vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) AR6 is Tekever's first entry into the heavy-lift UAV market. It has:

Propulsion

Citing what he said were problematic trade-offs with electrical, mechanical, and hybrid propulsion for rotorcraft UAVs, Karl Brew, director of Tekever in the UK, told Janes on 21 July that the AR6 uses hydraulics instead.

A modified Cox Aviation piston engine does not power the rotors itself, but powers hydraulic pumps in combination with what Brew, and Peter McCurry, CEO of UK-based partner company Flowcopter, describe as the AR6's key propulsion innovation.

Commands from the AR6's flight and system controller are passed to its pump controller. The newly created piece of equipment, dubbed a “digital displacement pump” by Tekever, then constantly regulates and adjusts hydraulic flows through a service pump feeding four hydraulic channels, one going to each rotor.

While what is essentially a modified Rotax motor runs at a fixed pitch, the digital displacement pump gathers data on what hydraulic power is being provided by the engine, and what power is needed by each rotor as it flies. The pump controller system works rather like controlling valve timing in a diesel engine, said McCurry. It can deliver instant changes in the revolutions per minute (RPM) of the rotors, said Brew.