Inspired Flight IF800 Tomcat

The Inspired Flight IF800 Tomcat is a folding enterprise quadcopter built in San Luis Obispo, California, for mapping, surveying and inspection. It carries up to 3 kg of third-party sensors and costs $23,000 on Inspired Flight’s store before a payload. Inspired Flight unveiled it in June 2023 and planned to ship it before the end of that year.

It is bought for the same reason as the Freefly Astro Max: public agencies and federally funded projects that can no longer fly DJI need an aircraft that takes the same kinds of payload.

Aircraft Specifications

All figures are Inspired Flight’s published specifications, checked against its specification and documentation pages on 29 September 2026. FlightBrief has not flown the aircraft.

Three things the figures hide. The 54 minutes is with no payload; Inspired Flight’s own blog gives about 35 minutes with a 1.5 kg sensor. Its documentation limits the aircraft and battery to −10 °C, not the −20 °C on the specification page. And its pages disagree on the flight controller, naming both the Cube Orange+ and the Cube Blue H7.

Payloads and Ground Stations

The IF800 is an open platform. Sensors fit a tool-free dovetail mount and talk to the aircraft over the standard Pixhawk payload bus. Inspired Flight names the Sentera 65R and 6X multispectral cameras, Sony’s ILX-LR1, Gremsy’s VIO gimbal and LiDAR from YellowScan and GeoCue.

The price turns on the ground station and the support plan. With the Herelink controller it runs from $23,000 to $28,000; with Inspired Flight’s GS-ONE, which has a 7-inch, 2,000-nit screen, from $29,500 to $34,500. State and local public-safety agencies get 12% off the VIO bundle.

Use Cases

Survey, agriculture and infrastructure work where the funding or the client requires an NDAA-compliant aircraft: state transport departments, universities on federal research grants, utilities. The Alabama Department of Transportation is Inspired Flight’s published case study, inspecting airport pavement with the Sentera 65R.

Market Context

Against the Astro Max, the IF800 lifts the same 3 kg, flies longer without payload (54 minutes against 39) and costs less ($23,000 against $28,995). The Astro Max is lighter, at 8.7 kg maximum takeoff against 11.5 kg. Neither has obstacle avoidance.

The DJI Matrice 400 carries 6 kg, has radar and LiDAR obstacle sensing, and costs $10,300 for the aircraft. The difference in price is the cost of eligibility.

Blue UAS status. The IF800 was on the Pentagon’s Blue UAS Cleared List until the March 2025 refresh, when Inspired Flight’s Adam Bilmes said “our systems were removed”. It is on AUVSI’s Green UAS cleared list, and DIU said on 16 July 2025 that Green UAS platforms are added to the Blue list. Inspired Flight’s product page shows a Blue UAS badge. Neither the company nor DCMA, which now runs the list, has announced the return; check the Blue UAS Cleared List guide and the DCMA portal before buying against that requirement.