About Us
Driven by passion, partnership, and innovation
For more than two decades, Draganfly has been a leader in the professional drone industry, supporting our clients with enterprise drone solutions, contract engineering services, custom software, professional UAV services, and more. Learn more about our legacy and the people who got us where we are today.
A 20+ year history of drone innovation
From public safety to pop culture, Draganfly has shaped not just the UAV industry, but the way people around the world work and live. Here are just some of our milestones since we were founded in 1998.
Breaking ground with international firsts
Draganfly has a legacy of leading the professional drone industry. Here are a few of our most groundbreaking firsts:
In 1999, we released the first commercialized quadrotor UAV.
In 2001, we released the first multirotor UAV with an integrated camera system.
In 2013, Draganflyer was credited as the world’s first sUAS to save a person’s life.
In 2016, Draganfly became the first company to have multiple UAV systems deemed Transport Canada Compliant.
Earning news coverage
Draganfly technology has appeared in Time Magazine’s “Rise of the Drones” issue, the New York Times feature article “How It Works: Gyroscopes That Don’t Spin Make It Easy to Hover,” and National Geographic’s article on UAVs used in emergency services.
Receiving awards and recognitions
Our drone software, tech and team have been honored with:
International Academy of Science’s Top 10 Finalists for Technology of the Year for Draganfly Tango (2007)
Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” Award in the Aviation & Space category for Draganflyer X6 (2008)
The Ernest C. Manning Award, Canada’s most prestigious innovation award, for founder Zenon Dragan (2014)
Improving public safety
Draganfly has a long history of using drone technology to aid the police in keeping the public safe. In 2009, Ontario Provincial Police’s Forensic Identification Unit used the Draganflyer X6 to collect evidence in a homicide investigation, making this the first use of a commercial UAV for emergency services in North America. In 2013, the Draganflyer X6 was featured in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “The Future of Drones in America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations,” which laid the ground-work for police drone usage and policy. And in 2014, the Draganflyer X4-ES located missing hikers lost in a heavily wooded area outside Halifax, Nova Scotia, showing the world how this technology can be used to save lives in real-world applications.
Enhancing major museums
Draganfly drones are featured in numerous museums around the world, including the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Shaping pop culture
Draganfly drones have been featured on several television shows and movies, including “The Simpsons,” “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” Disney’s “Inspector Gadget 2,” and A&E’s “Bigfoot Captured” TV special, which used the Draganflyer to collect aerial footage while searching for this curious creature.
An unmatched passion for UAV engineering
Draganfly is a business built by experts; our team is comprised of leaders in the industry who have decades of experience in robotics, aviation, and model building, as well as a genuine passion for building the world’s best flying machines.
Our team does great work because we care about our partners, but also because we just love what we do. We view UAV engineering as an art and a science; building industrial drones that change the world takes equal parts artisan craftsmanship and technical prowess. When we get to work every day, we challenge ourselves with one question: how can we make better, lighter, more reliable drones that improve the way we live?
A commitment and care for our partners
At Draganfly, we operate by a few guiding principles that put our partners at the center of everything we do. We don’t produce commercial drones in mass quantities; we design and manufacture professional drones for specific use cases. We don’t measure success by sales; we measure it by customer success. And we don’t sell our services if we can’t do the job well; we only make decisions and drones we can be proud of.
We work with our partners to understand their problems and workflows as well as they do so we can craft the perfect solution that fits into their existing operations. And we begin product and platform agnostic; this allows us to avoid prescriptive problem solving as we focus on building custom solutions tailored for the needs of the end user.
