# A wingtip gimbal keeps the camera clear of the drone's wing

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/a-wingtip-gimbal-keeps-the-camera-clear-of-the-drones-wing/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Adam Bry](https://realalpha.app/builders/adam-bry/) · Adam Bry is cofounder and CEO of Skydio. · Co-founded Skydio, building autonomous drones from research pioneered at MIT and Google’s Project Wing.
- Host: [Ti Morse](https://realalpha.app/people/ti-morse/) · Host, Relentless · Interviews hard-tech founders on Relentless; guests include Sam Altman, Brian Armstrong and Hadrian's Chris Power.
- Show: Relentless
- Episode: [The Drone Startup That's Outcompeting China | Adam Bry, Skydio](https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/), Nov 8, 2026
- Moment: 14:12 to 16:38 of the episode (2 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/a-wingtip-gimbal-keeps-the-camera-clear-of-the-drones-wing/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/?t=852

## Quote

> “when the airplane is banked and turning and orbiting, once per revolution, that wing is going to **block the field of view** of the camera.”
> — [Adam Bry](https://realalpha.app/builders/adam-bry/) at [14:58](https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/?t=898) · Relentless

## Takeaways

1. A center-mounted camera gets blocked during turns.
2. The wingtip gimbal keeps the camera's view clear.
3. Hardware and software are designed together.

## About this segment

Skydio put the F10's gimbal on the wingtip to stop the wing blocking the view during turns. The design combines camera placement, flight dynamics and motion-planning software.

From “The Drone Startup That's Outcompeting China | Adam Bry, Skydio”, Nov 8, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[14:16](https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/?t=856) when i was looking at the fixed tween yesterday rob told me that basically you guys started the design process by just looking at the camera and what you wanted the camera to do and then you design the rest of the vehicle around that how do you actually go through the design process on a new product like that so this is the f-ton f-10 light runner drone so the the really unique thing there is the the camera gimbal sits on the wing tip so if you look at basically every fixed wing camera carrying drone that has ever existed for the history of the industry, the payload is always in the center because that's where the mass is, that's where the drag is. And so from an aerodynamic standpoint, not putting in the center seems kind of crazy. But the problem with putting the camera in the center is that when the airplane is banked and turning and orbiting, once per revolution,

[15:06](https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/?t=906) that wing is going to block the field of view of the camera. And there's just no way around that. It's just like the most basic physics and visibility analysis out there. And that's a really terrible experience for the person that's operating the drone. Like the ideal experience is you just have this magic camera floating in the sky that can look and see whatever it wants. And so when we think about the design of F10, that's basically what we're trying to deliver is how can you deliver this experience of you basically just have this magic camera that goes wherever you want it to go, can look in any direction you want it to look.

[15:37](https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/?t=937) And delivering that with a fixed wing is incredibly challenging because you've got fixed wing dynamics. I mean, the thing needs to keep flying forward in order to maintain lift, it needs to turn, it needs to maneuver. And so it's an integration of hardware and software, like the motion planning algorithms, putting the wingtip out of the gimbal to accomplish it. And, you know, I say this is, that stuff's just like the most fun things in the world to me. And we have incredible teams, like we're a full-stack company, so we can for all the hardware, for all the software, we do all the manufacturing. So there's basically no rules except for physics for like what we can accomplish when we get, you know, like the world class engineering team sitting together and jointly optimizing. One of our core values as a

[16:14](https://realalpha.app/v/nb7EinVtdok/?t=974) company, you say, how do we think about product design? I say, I'd love the problem, get to the essence. We're very big believers in getting down to the essence of the problem. Like what's the fundamental thing that we're trying to deliver for customers? And what's like, what are the fundamental physics that govern what we can design and build and then using that kind of like that core understanding of the essence to build back up to the right solution that was one of the