Our legacy is one of innovation...We don't have the iconic garage similar to the Hewlett Packard story, but in many ways our beginning mirrors that of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and countless other entrepreneurs. Like many businesses, it started with a dream, with a vision, and the guts to make a go of it. And that's just what we did in 1998, when Christine and Zenon Dragan launched Draganfly Innovations Inc.
From the very beginning, innovation was the driving force; and it's innovation that continues to drive the products, services, and support at Draganfly Innovations today. Zenon Dragan says, "I like to create things that haven't been done before", and that couldn't be more true with their first introduction of the radio controlled (RC) blimp, and most notably, the 1999 development of the RC quad rotor helicopter called the Draganflyer.
The new little helicopter was kind of hard to fly, but the unique design and price point captured the imagination of thousands. The design philosophy of "keep it simple" and providing premiere customer support set the foundation for the core culture that drives everyone at Draganfly Innovations today. With the instant success of the Draganflyer came a series of successive designs to improve flight characteristics, ease of operation, and improve video down-link performance.
Our success speaks for itself...It's really all about the customer. Often the design team will start with an idea for an interesting application or a business problem to be solved, and they develop a really clever payload, vehicle, or aircraft system. But in the background throughout the design process they are thinking of the target market and how they will use the new product. After extensive bench and field-testing the product is announced. And that's when the real fun begins — because it's the customers who really make our products what they are.
With the announcement of a new product, Draganfly plants the seed of imagination; and from there the phone starts ringing, and the e-mails start coming in with customer applications and amazing ideas of how the products can be used. It's this interaction with our customers that drives us, makes us better and leads to new and more creative solutions down the road.
The success of Draganfly Innovations Inc. has strengthened our entrepreneurial spirit, which leads to more innovative, creative solutions and very honestly, we don't see that slowing down, changing, or getting side-tracked any time soon.
The future is bright and we all know that together, we can make a difference.
