Hylio
Ares
Quad-rotor US-built platform (HYL-150) with a 50 L spray tank and a 12 m swath.
Current model



Photographs: Hylio, from the manufacturer's product pages. Used with permission for editorial coverage.
Specifications
Every figure below is rendered directly from our source file, so this table cannot drift from what we verified. The source and check date sit alongside each value.
| Specification | Value | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airframe | |||
| Empty Weight | 80 lb (36 kg) | hyl.io | |
| Max Takeoff Weight | 220 lb (100 kg) | hyl.io | |
| Max Payload Weight | 110 lb (50 kg) | hyl.io | |
| Max Thrust | 440 lb (200 kg) | hyl.io | |
| Propeller Size | 56 × 20 inches (142 × 51 cm), folding | hyl.io | |
| Motor Kv | 4 × 45 rpm/V brushless motors — last seen on the vendor page 2026-07-25; not present in the 2026-08-06 read | hyl.io | |
| Max Operating Speed | 30 mph (48 km/h) | hyl.io | |
| Spraying and spreading | |||
| Spray Tank Capacity | 13 gal (50 L) | hyl.io | |
| Spreader Capacity | 20 gal (76 L) | hyl.io | |
| Swath Width | up to 40 ft (12 m) | hyl.io | |
| Coverage Rate Liquid | up to 70 acres/hour — Hylio's figure, at a 2 gal/acre rate | hyl.io | |
| Coverage Rate Solid | up to 120 acres/hour — Hylio's figure, at 20 lb/acre | hyl.io | |
| Sensing and control | |||
| Obstacle Avoidance | 4 lateral and 1 upward 62 GHz radars; 1 downward 24 GHz radar | hyl.io | |
| Camera | 1080p at 60 fps on a 3-axis gimbal | hyl.io | |
| Communication Bands | 2.4 GHz and 4G LTE | hyl.io | |
| Flight Modes | Fully autonomous; position-hold manual; fully manual GPS-denied | hyl.io | |
| Battery and charging | |||
| Battery | 1 × 18S 30 Ah LiPo, 32 lb (14 kg) | hyl.io | |
| Battery Charge Time | 10–12 minutes single; 20–25 minutes for two — 9000 W dual-channel charger, 120 A total | hyl.io | |
What these figures mean in practice
Our reading of the specifications above. These are not manufacturer claims — every number below is derived from the table, and the trade-offs are ours.
Two-to-one thrust against takeoff weight
440 lb of thrust against a 220 lb maximum takeoff weight is a 2:1 ratio, and it is the most striking number on this sheet. Most agricultural multirotors sit nearer 1.5:1. That headroom is what a machine needs for hard manoeuvring at full tank, gusty conditions and hot-and-high work — and it is a figure most manufacturers in this category do not publish at all.
Unlike the DJI machines, it is not payload-limited to the tank
36 kg empty plus the 50 kg maximum payload comes to 86 kg against a 100 kg maximum takeoff weight, leaving about 14 kg spare. The Agras T50 and T100 both size payload to exactly fill the margin. Whether that spare is usable depends on configuration, but it is a genuinely different design posture.
The coverage claim stands up better than most
70 acres/hour at 2 gal/acre is 28.3 ha/h at about 18.7 L/ha — roughly 530 L an hour, or eleven tank loads. That is demanding but not fanciful, and notably it is quoted at nearly double the water rate that XAG's comparable 26 ha/h figure implies. Of the manufacturer productivity claims on this site, it is the one that survives arithmetic most comfortably.
No published flight time
Hylio gives charge times, battery capacity and coverage rates but not endurance. With a single 18S 30 Ah pack — about 2.2 kWh at nominal 18S voltage — and a 50 kg payload, sorties will be short, but the page does not say how short, and we are not going to guess on a spec page.
Our coverage of the Ares
Guide
Autonomous tractor workflows for row-by-row variable-rate
Guide
Building a Sentinel-2 NDVI workflow for scouting
News
Advisory circular changes for drone operators: compliance im
Regulations
CASA agricultural drone rules for farm operators
Regulations
FAA Part 137 Agricultural Drone Requirements
Guide