America’s Answer to China’s Drone Dominance
In a Nutshell
Skydio manufactures its X10 drone entirely in California as the largest Western drone maker, using in-house assembly, nano-coated waterproofing, and rigorous burn-in/flight/calibration testing to ensure reliability. The company’s edge comes from autonomy-focused design, modular gimbal systems, and on-site production that avoids China-dependent supply chains. This U.S.-based scale is presented as both a commercial and national strategic advantage.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Skydio operates with the concept of render to reality, where many products begin as seemingly crazy sci-fi concepts. Adam Bry is the co-founder and CEO of Skydio. The company sits on the first floor of its headquarters building where hardware development and testing occurs.
Skydio is the largest US drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight. The company's drones function more like flying robots than traditional drones.
The Skydio X10 is manufactured in Hayward, California. The X10 comprises thousands of individual components and hundreds of parts assembled in a 70,000 square foot facility.
One of the most important features of the X10 is its ability to operate in rain, achieved through waterproofing critical components using a process called nano coating.
One of the first steps in assembly involves putting together the arms. The arms contain multiple antennas, motors, and lights. The two halves of each arm are exposed to extremely high frequency vibration, which melts the plastic in a controlled way and fuses the pieces together. Motor wires are hand soldered onto the power board.
After attaching the arms and all electrical connections to the main chassis, the chest is attached. The chest houses three bottom-facing navigation cameras along with a downward-facing range sensor. The cameras are assembled onto a vibration-isolated frame before being assembled into the chest.
The main chassis assembly contains an advanced NVIDIA CPU GPU and a Qualcomm chip that manages camera feeds from the gimbal. This assembly gets mated to the chest.
The gimbal represents one of the most challenging pieces to engineer. When the drone flies and experiences vibration from wind, the camera must remain stable. This is accomplished through a vibration isolation system called the gimbal. The sensor package or gimbal is customer modular, allowing replacement or upgrade in the field.
The final steps focus on validating that everything works as expected. The first step is burn-in testing. The system is subjected to high stress loads by running motors at full capacity for an aggressive stress pattern. The goal is to identify any quality defects at the factory rather than in customer hands.
A critical testing step performed on every single drone involves connecting it to a controller and flying it.
The final step is calibration. The drone attaches to a calibration robot that runs through a specific pattern exercising all onboard sensors. All generated data feeds into a global optimization that estimates the exact location of all components. Every unit is slightly different and requires factory floor calibration.
As part of calibration, final inspection occurs to check for any remaining defects or cosmetic issues. The final step involves assembling the complete kit, which includes the drone plus batteries, charger, radio, and sometimes different attachments and accessories.
Adam Bry has been involved in drone technology his entire life, growing up flying radio controlled airplanes and becoming obsessed with the hobby as a child.
Skydio is now the largest Western drone manufacturer by a wide margin. In the recent past in Silicon Valley, conventional wisdom held that hardware manufacturing should be outsourced entirely to China. When Skydio started in 2014, this was the standard advice investors would provide. Operating at scale in the US has become a critical strategic advantage for the company and represents a critical consideration for the country.
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