Ornadyne: We're building robot birds for surveillance. | Y Combinator

\n\n---\n\nThis isn’t new. The U.S. used to lead flapping-wing flight, but **today, Europe and China are far ahead. Ornadyne is bringing the U.S. back into the lead.**\n\nWe're building autonomous ornithopters with hour-class flight times, low acoustic signatures, and natural bird-like flight. This makes Ornadyne's drones harder for humans and counter-UAS systems to detect, classify, and target.\n\n\n\n---\n\n### The Founders:\n\n**Geourg’s** Master's thesis is built on 2+ years of research and development in flapping-wing drones. His work has received multiple awards through AIAA and IEEE conference publications. He is ex- NASA JPL, and ex-Astrolab, where he worked on Mars and lunar missions.\n\n**Armen** engineered Starship components at SpaceX and previously led machining at USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, helping the team set the amateur rocketry altitude world record at 144 km.\n\nBoth founders have been best friends since middle school.\n\n\n\n### Ask:\n\nIf you work in defense tech or are building in the space, we’d love to connect. Introductions to anyone who might be interested in working with us would be much appreciated.","state":"public","tagline":"Autonomous bird-like drones for military reconnaissance.","created_at":"2026-05-01T00:54:15.289Z","company":{"id":31486,"name":"Ornadyne","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/a1b22be817e9ad2d1f4b3a606e7b94d10bc6a8d6.png","batch":"p2026","tags":["Hard Tech","Robotics","Drones","Aerospace"],"url":"https://ornadyne.com/","slug":"ornadyne","description":"We're building robot birds for surveillance."},"user":{"name":"Geourg Kivijian","avatar":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/avatars/e337453d3b319353220202f1fe100ab8ce774327.jpg"},"total_vote_count":28,"slug":"QAr-ornadyne-robot-birds-for-reconnaissance","launch_embed_url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/QAr-ornadyne-robot-birds-for-reconnaissance/upvote_embed.svg","twitter_share_url":"https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Ornadyne+just+launched+on+%40ycombinator%27s+Launch+YC%21%0A%0AOrnadyne+-+Robot+Birds+for+Reconnaissance.+Check+them+out%3A&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ycombinator.com%2Flaunches%2FQAr-ornadyne-robot-birds-for-reconnaissance","sanitized_title":"Ornadyne - Robot Birds for Reconnaissance","ycdc_launch_url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/QAr-ornadyne-robot-birds-for-reconnaissance","url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/QAr-ornadyne-robot-birds-for-reconnaissance","share_config":"{}","share_image":null}],"editUrl":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/31486/edit","editUserUrl":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/edit_user_profile","createProfileUrl":"https://account.ycombinator.com/authenticate?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.workatastartup.com%2Fapplication&defaults%5BsignUpActive%5D=true","signedIn":false,"showDirectApply":true,"waasDirectoryUrl":"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies","investorSubdomain":false,"userCanRequestEmails":false},"url":"/companies/ornadyne","version":"02e9469a0787dec7874747a52ff8a7baba297e40","encryptHistory":false,"clearHistory":false,"rails_context":{"railsEnv":"production","inMailer":false,"i18nLocale":"en","i18nDefaultLocale":"en","href":"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/ornadyne","location":"/companies/ornadyne","scheme":"https","host":"www.ycombinator.com","port":null,"pathname":"/companies/ornadyne","search":null,"httpAcceptLanguage":null,"applyBatchLong":"Summer 2026","applyBatchShort":"S2026","applyDeadlineShort":"May 4","ycdcRetroMode":false,"accountUrl":"https://account.ycombinator.com","internalRoot":null,"bookfaceRoot":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com","applyRoot":"https://apply.ycombinator.com","investorsRoot":"https://investors.ycombinator.com","waasRoot":"https://www.workatastartup.com","ycdcRoot":"https://ycombinator.com","eventsRoot":"https://events.ycombinator.com","startupSchoolRoot":"https://www.startupschool.org","messagesRoot":"https://messages.ycombinator.com","dealsRoot":"https://deals.ycombinator.com","currentUser":null,"serverSide":true},"id":"ycdc_new/pages/Companies/ShowPage-react-component-5207397e-2a7b-4b23-b490-6e0687db92a1","server_side":true}">

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Ornadyne

We're building robot birds for surveillance.

Y Combinator LogoSpring 2026

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Hard Tech<br>Robotics<br>Drones<br>Aerospace<br>Los Angeles

https://ornadyne.com/

We're building robot birds for surveillance.<br>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...