Ornadyne O1 ornithopter registers as bird on all sensors at Edwards Game of Drones 26-3

The O1 completed multiple flights at the 412th Test Wing event, flapping wings instead of using propellers. Co-founder Armen Arakelyan stated the drone collected target recognition data while remaining below detection thresholds. The test marked the first public counter-UAS trial for the system against commercial sensors fielded by other vendors at the quarterly exercise.

Flight data showed 10 km range and over one hour endurance with a small camera payload. The airframe allows field changes to wingspan, color, and silhouette to match regional species. Co-founder Geourg Kivijian reported all deployed sensors classified the O1 as a bird rather than an aircraft.

Existing low-observable drones rely on RF evasion or pre-planned autonomy; the O1 instead uses biological mimicry. A similar sparrow-sized ornithopter appeared in 2024 PLA Jiaolong commando footage, indicating parallel development paths. The approach trades payload and speed for passive signature reduction in low-altitude ISR roles.

Ornadyne plans to iterate color and proportion variants for additional bird species ahead of follow-on range and endurance trials scheduled for 2027.