Parallel Flight Technologies

Parallel Flight Technologies builds hybrid heavy lift drones. Its main product is the Firefly unmanned aircraft system. The company is based in La Selva Beach, California. It says its work is made in the USA.

Firefly carries up to 100 pounds of payload for up to 1.4 hours. The site says it is two-person portable and can be refueled in under five minutes. The company says it can operate without charging infrastructure. The aircraft is designed for missions that all electric drones cannot complete.

The company says its hybrid propulsion gives greater payload, range and endurance than all electric drones. The site lists easy payload integration and power, fully autonomous operations, and a redundant hybrid drivetrain. It also lists low operational cost and a compact, transportable design.

The Office of Naval Research awarded the company a $3.74 million contract to develop a maritime capable Firefly UAS. The company also received an FAA Section 44807 exemption for U.S. commercial operations of heavy lift hybrid UAS. A distribution partnership with Drone Forge will take Firefly into the Asia Pacific region.

The company was founded in response to the California wildfire crisis. Several founding team members had homes and livelihoods threatened by wildfires in the Santa Cruz mountains. The team set out to build autonomous, heavy lift, long duration drones. The site says the use cases have since grown across many industries.

The site lists general inquiries and investor relations contacts. It also has a customer intent form, an investor portal, and a careers page. The site has a newsletter signup for updates. The company is on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X.