Ornadyne
ActiveWe're building robot birds for surveillance.
About
Ornadyne builds flapping-wing drones for reconnaissance that look, fly, and sound like birds. Today’s drones are easy to detect acoustically, visually, and electronically. As counter-UAS systems improve, traditional quadcopters and fixed-wing UAS systems are becoming increasingly ineffective for close-range surveillance. Flapping-wing aircraft have existed for years, but have lacked the performance, endurance, and control required for real-world deployment. We’re changing that by engineering a high-performance, stealth-optimized system built from first principles for efficiency, autonomy, and reliable field use. The final frontier of surveillance won’t look like machines; it will look like wildlife already in the sky. Maybe birds aren't real?
Founders
Geourg Kivijian· Co-founder & CEOCo-founder & CEO of Ornadyne. Award-winning engineer (IEEE/AIAA) recognized for pioneering work in flapping-wing robotics. Previously led coordination systems for Mars Sample Return at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and lunar rovers at Astrolab. Now scaling Ornadyne to bring bio-inspired stealth and efficiency to the next generation of flight. www.geourgkivijian.com
Armen Arakelyan· Co-founder & CTOCo-founder & CTO at Ornadyne, building autonomous flapping-wing aircraft. Previously a Starship components engineer at SpaceX. Before that, I led machining at USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at the University of Southern California, helping the team set the amateur rocketry altitude world record at 144 km.
Product launches · 1 launch
Autonomous bird-like drones for military reconnaissance.
Change history · 8 recorded
- July 12, 2026
- Location updated07:00 PM
- July 5, 2026
- YC partner updated08:01 PM
- Relocated to San Francisco08:01 PM
- Founder profile updated08:01 PM
- Launches refreshed08:01 PM
- June 27, 2026
- Tags updated07:00 PM
- June 14, 2026
- Location updated07:00 PM
- May 1, 2026
- New launch posted: Ornadyne - Robot Birds for Reconnaissance12:54 AM