Unmanned Aeronautics was founded in 2015 by Jon Ragland in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. After working in the aerospace sector manufacturing for various military and research programs, he could see that there was a growing need for smaller, more affordable aircraft that were made with the same materials and level of quality, could perform many of the same tasks with a much smaller footprint, and be affordable for commercial enterprise. Commercial UAS operation was still extremely limited in the US and most of the products being developed were made of cheap materials (low density foam that would tear apart during use, etc) , had limited uses, and were being sold for very high premiums.

The GhostRay® was the first aircraft developed by Unmanned Aeronautics, an under 55lb fixed wing drone that could be adopted for a wide variety of uses, and fit into the commercial drone regulations being put into place. It also leveraged the industry changing advancements in the open source autopilot sector, which were advancing capabilities rapidly, often outpacing the capabilities of high end military grade UAV autopilots.

The next development was a half scale version of the GhostRay®, named the XRay®. The focus of this smaller fixed wing aircraft was for still image surveying and mapping applications, especially in areas where a smaller aircraft is necessary.

In 2018 the company was awarded a multi-year contract with the US Dep’t of State to provide security defense assistance to the Kenya Defense Force to support ongoing security efforts by providing GhostRay® UAS system sets for ISR surveillance over large remote areas. The GhostRay® has performed around the clock in a variety of inclement weather conditions in remote, rugged landscapes with minimal support infrastructure, solidifying its reputation for reliability and mission capability. Unmanned Aeronautics has conducted ongoing complete UAS training program iterations including pilot, payload operator, and maintenance technician training since 2019.

Today we are continuing to push the envelope by developing products with state-of-the-art capabilities to serve private industry and civil government needs. Leveraging the experience we have performing critical missions in the extremely harsh environments, we are expanding into the commercial sector to bring advanced autonomous UAS capability to industries such as large area surveying, large scale construction and public works projects, environmental monitoring and management, as well as a wide variety of industries that are rapidly adopting UAS and seeing benefits in cost and efficiency.

Since its inception, Unmanned Aeronautics has been able to deploy its aircraft around the world in support of various needs, becoming an early provider in a young industry. We have stayed true to the original vision of providing the highest quality fixed wing drones at an unmatched value, and will continue to do so into the future. For more information on our products or to discuss partnership and collaboration opportunities, please contact us: Contact Us

Find out more about our products here: GhostRay® UAS, XRay® VT UAS