Flyability, the Swiss company best known for making drones that can safely bump into things due to its unique cage design, just gave its flagship Elios 3 drone something that many of its competitors can’t match: potentially unlimited flight time.

The company this week unveiled the Elios 3 Tether Power Unit, a wall-pluggable ground power system that sends juice up a 50-meter Kevlar-reinforced cable. That enables continuous operation without mid-mission battery swaps. The announcement coincides with the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas this week, where the Flyability tether system made its public debut.

“Our tether offers continuous power, so the drone could fly forever,” Eloise McMinn Mitchell, Flyability’s vertical marketing manager said in an interview with The Drone Girl. Of course, there are practical limitations: pilots usually need a break after 30 minutes, and the onboard memory maxes out after about two hours of data capture.

By comparison, Flyability’s recently launched high-capacity battery offers up to 17 minutes of flight. The tether unit doesn’t replace batteries — drones still ship with them by default — but for industries that demand hours of nonstop data collection, tethering is now on the table.

Tackling the tether problem

Drones on tethers aren’t new (Cyphy famously included tethers in their drones, which were ultimately acquired by FLIR). Alas, tethers are notoriously awkward to fly in complex environments (like dark, underground tunnels, where Flyability’s drones were made to fly in). Flyability claims it’s solved that with an anti-flip swivel that connects the tether to the drone. The swivel allows the cable to mount from any angle without destabilizing the aircraft, so pilots don’t need to obsess over line tension.

“The drone flies as if it were untethered,” Mitchell said. “Competitors don’t yet have an equivalent feature, which means their pilots constantly have to track the tether’s position to avoid crashes.”

The cable itself is 50 meters (164 feet) long, Kevlar-reinforced with a 50-kilogram tensile strength, and designed to survive thousands of abrasion cycles against sharp edges. It’s not the longest tether on the market, but Flyability emphasizes its durability and portability. The unit packs into a wheeled case and supports 100–240V AC input, making it globally compatible.

Why tether, why now?

Mitchell says the push to build a Flyability tether came from customer pain points. New drone pilots often find managing flight time stressful, and mission-critical applications like ultrasonic thickness (UT) testing demand longer flights. Flyability introduced its UT payload in 2024, but battery limits capped its usefulness.

“The tether was our missing piece in the non-destructive testing market,” Mitchell said. “It makes the Elios 3 fully ready for challenging NDT missions.”

Oil and gas is already a key vertical, and Flyability recently ran tests with Shell on an offshore platform. Despite the Elios being designed for indoor inspection, the tether enabled it to map difficult-to-access structures on the underside of a deck. Mining, power generation, maritime and utility infrastructure are also expected to be strong adopters.

Autonomy, ROI, and what’s next beyond the Flyability tether

While Flyability isn’t disclosing pricing of the Flyability tether, Mitchell said it is positioned as a premium accessory rather than a default. Existing Elios 3 users can add it to their kits, and new buyers can customize bundles that mix and match tether units, high-capacity batteries, and payloads.

Flyability argues the ROI case is straightforward: tethering reduces downtime, speeds up inspections, and removes human workers from hazardous confined spaces.

“We’re expecting a massive impact, especially when inspecting large assets like ship hulls and tanks where hours of flight are required,” Mitchell said.

The tether also plays into Flyability’s long-term goal of more autonomous operations. With flight time constraints gone, the company can focus on scaling up its analytics software. Future developments could include tools to compare inspection data across flights.

The bigger picture

In a market where uptime equates to safety and cost savings, the Flyability tether’s pitch of “unlimited” flight is bound to resonate.

The Elios 3 tether will be on display this week in Las Vegas at the Commercial UAV Expo and again at other 2025 drone events such as in Milan at GasTech. There are also regional “DroneDays” demos planned later this year in Chile and Australia.

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