🇮🇸 Silent drone technology lands patent

By Elías Thorsson

REYKJAVÍK — EUROPEAN PATENT authority EPO has granted Flygildi, an Icelandic dronemaker, a patent for a method of flying resembling the way a bird flies.

“The patent is first and foremost a recognition of the novelty of our technology,” said Björg Ormslef Ásgeirsdóttir, the firm’s managing director. “It makes it difficult for other companies to enter the market and will help in raising investment capital.”

Drones typically emit a buzzing as they fly or hover, but Flygildi’s Silent Flyer drone, as the name suggests, is noiseless.

Inspired by the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Silent Flyer flaps its wings and waggles its tail to control propulsion and navigation. This makes it harder to detect, enabling it to perform tasks that require a large degree of stealth.

“The drone has applications for the defense and surveillance industries, but we’ve also had interest from organisations such as the Icelandic Directorate of Fisheries, which is looking for ways to detect fishing ships engaged in discarding of fish,” Ms Ásgeirsdóttir said.

Flygildi currently has patents pending for its technology in the US, China and South Korea and will be entering a new round of financing in spring.

This article has been fact-checked by Arctic Business Journal and Polar Research and Policy Initiative, with the support of the EMIF managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

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