Tekever, the Lisbon-based maker of uncrewed aircraft, has bought Flowcopter, an Edinburgh engineering company that builds hydraulic transmission systems for aircraft propulsion. The announcement came from Tekever's Bristol office on 1 September 2026. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The company says the acquisition "will preserve Flowcopter's engineering presence in Edinburgh under the TEKEVER brand", and that the Edinburgh team will keep working on propulsion and heavy-lift systems. That adds a Scottish site to a British footprint that already includes offices, factories and test facilities in London, Bristol, Southampton, West Wales, Lydd and Swindon. Tekever says it now employs more than 300 people across the UK.
Why a hydraulic drive matters
Most multirotor drones spin their rotors with electric motors fed from a battery, which is simple and quiet but limits how much an aircraft can lift and how far it can go. Flowcopter's approach uses a hydraulic transmission instead, so a single engine can drive several rotors through fluid power rather than through separate electric motors.
Tekever has already built that idea into its next aircraft. The first platform in its AR6 family, unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow in July, uses Flowcopter's hydraulic system. The company says the AR6 will be able to carry "at least 200kg over 500km", which puts it well beyond the reach of the battery-powered aircraft most UK operators fly today.
What the companies said
Ricardo Mendes, Tekever's chief executive, said Flowcopter "has built an outstanding reputation for engineering innovation and has developed truly differentiated technology which addresses some of the most demanding challenges in uncrewed aviation."
Karl Brew, director of Tekever UK, said: "As demand increases for autonomous systems capable of operating further, carrying more, and delivering greater mission flexibility, the combined capabilities of the technologies developed by Flowcopter and TEKEVER's advanced platforms strengthens our ability to address evolving requirements across both governmental and commercial sectors."
Peter McCurry, Flowcopter's managing director, said: "Joining TEKEVER represents an exciting new chapter for Flowcopter. From the outset, our mission has been to redefine the capabilities of unmanned aircraft through innovative engineering."
The bigger picture
The purchase sits inside what Tekever calls OVERMATCH, a long-term programme it values at £400 million, aimed at expanding what it describes as sovereign autonomy capabilities in the UK. The company describes itself as Europe's leading provider of AI-driven autonomous systems.
For operators on the ground, the practical point is the direction of travel. A 200kg payload over 500km is a very different aircraft from a survey quadcopter, and the propulsion work behind it now has a home in Edinburgh alongside Tekever's other UK sites. It is also another sign that heavy-lift and long-range work in UK airspace is being built here rather than imported, which tends to bring the trials, the airspace approvals and, eventually, the commercial contracts closer to home.
Sources are linked below; both were read on 3 September 2026.