Ornadyne

YC company profile

We're building robot birds for surveillance.

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?

• YC batch: Spring 2026
• Founded: 2026
• Team size: 4
• Location: Los Angeles, CA
• Country: US
• Status: Active
• Industry: Industrials
• Stage: Early
• Tags: Hard Tech, Robotics, Drones, Aerospace, Defense
• YC partner: Aaron Epstein

Founders

Geourg Kivijian — Founder/CEO

Co-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

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Armen Arakelyan — Founder/CTO

Co-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.

LinkedIn

Source: Y Combinator · Retrieved 2026-11-02. Company information is self-reported on YC.