The Texas Drone Maker That Saw the China Problem Coming a Decade Early

Key points

• Hylio, founded in Richmond, Texas in 2015, has prioritised U.S.-made components since its first year of operation.
• The FCC added foreign-made drones and U.S.-assembled drones with significant foreign parts to its Covered List in December 2025.
• Corn prices have fallen 50% to 70% in recent years while farm input costs have risen 50% to 60% since pre-COVID 2019 levels, according to Hylio CEO Arthur Erickson.
• Farmers need multiple federal and local licences before legally operating a drone commercially.

Arthur Erickson launched Hylio in 2015 with one conviction: China dominated the drone parts market, and that dominance would eventually become a problem for American operators. He spent the next decade quietly building around it.

Hylio makes agricultural drones that spray fields with precise, measured doses of pesticides and fertilisers using digital flowmeters, electronic sensors that track exactly how much liquid the drone releases. The Richmond, Texas company builds as many components as possible inside the United States and sources the rest from domestic or allied-country suppliers.

When the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission that regulates communications technology in the U.S., added foreign-made drones to its Covered List in December 2025, Erickson called the news unsurprising. The Covered List is a register of companies and technologies the FCC has effectively banned from the U.S. Market over security concerns. "There was part of me that knew that was going to be a problem," he told The Robot Report.

"Back in 2015, you had to have stuff from China, because that was the only country making it," Erickson told The Robot Report. "Within reason, we thought, what could we make in house as a company?"

The answer, over ten years, was: quite a lot. AI2Day has tracked the FCC's tightening grip on robotics supply chains since 29 July 2026, across four FCC-tagged stories in that span.

What does this mean for farmers buying drones right now?

Any farmer or contractor shopping for a spray drone today faces a genuinely complicated buying decision. Where the machine was made, and where its parts came from, now has legal consequences.

Erickson's advice is direct: ask your dealer exactly where the drone and its components were manufactured, get a real answer rather than a marketing one, and confirm you hold every licence required before running a single commercial job.

Operating a drone commercially currently means navigating a mix of FCC and FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, licences on top of any local permits. That's three or four separate approvals before the drone leaves the ground. Hylio provides customers with a written guide to the process, practical help most competitors don't offer.

Can drones actually fix the economics of farming?

The financial pressure is severe. Corn prices have dropped 50% to 70% over recent years, Erickson says, while costs for fertilisers and other imported supplies have climbed 50% to 60% compared with pre-COVID 2019 levels. Trade disruptions including COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have pushed input costs higher across the board.

The pitch from Hylio is precision over volume. A drone can target a specific patch of crop affected by fungus or insects with a smaller, concentrated dose of chemical rather than blanket-spraying an entire field. Less product per acre, same or better results.

Erickson recommends a phased start: cover roughly 20% of the farm first, prioritise patches that are hardest to reach by tractor, prove the results, then expand. Farmers with a background in aerial crop-dusting by helicopter or plane tend to adapt fastest because they already work with safety checklists and structured procedures.

Drones aren't a quick fix. They reward planning. Operators who sort their licences, write their checklists and map their deployment before the season starts get the most from them. Those who skip those steps tend to regret it. Given that farm margins are already underwater on both ends, skipping steps is a luxury nobody can afford.