Carbonix
Carbonix is a Sydney, Australia drone maker whose Volanti and Ottano VTOL aircraft became the first in Australia to earn SAIL III BVLOS certification in 2026.
Carbonix is an Australian designer and manufacturer of long-range, fixed-wing and hybrid VTOL uncrewed aircraft, headquartered in Artarmon, New South Wales. Founded in 2011, the company grew out of a background in high-performance carbon-fibre catamaran hull construction, a materials and manufacturing heritage it later applied to lightweight aerospace airframes. Carbonix builds two principal aircraft families: the Volanti, an all-electric VTOL platform with a maximum take-off weight of 16 kilograms and flight endurance of up to two hours, designed to assemble in under 15 minutes for field deployment; and the Ottano, a larger hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft capable of more than six hours of forward flight and configurable with multiple interchangeable payloads. Both aircraft are built for extended visual line-of-sight and beyond visual line-of-sight operations, and support payloads including gimbal-stabilised ISR cameras, photogrammetry sensors, multispectral imagers, and LiDAR units.
Carbonix's customers are concentrated in critical infrastructure sectors, including electricity transmission and distribution, mining, oil and gas, agriculture, and conservation, where its aircraft are used to capture aerial survey and inspection data over long distances without the cost or risk of crewed aircraft. In July 2026, Carbonix became the first Australian company to achieve SAIL III certification from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, a milestone that allows the company to operate beyond visual line-of-sight flights at greater scale for utility and infrastructure customers such as SA Power Networks, which has used Carbonix aircraft for beyond-visual-line-of-sight powerline inspection.
The company has also worked with government and defense-adjacent programs given its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance payload capabilities, positioning it within Australia's growing sovereign drone manufacturing base. Carbonix reports a global partner network supporting deployments outside Australia, while continuing to manufacture its aircraft domestically. The company is privately held and has raised venture funding to scale production and certification work; recent business filings put its headcount in the range of a few dozen staff at its Sydney facility.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Volanti
3.6m all-electric VTOL fixed-wing UAV for rapid aerial surveys with photogrammetry, multispectral and LiDAR payloads.
Ottano
6.5m hybrid VTOL fixed-wing UAV carrying up to 5kg payload with 8-hour endurance for long-range energy and infrastructure surveys.
Contact Carbonix
WEBSITE
https://carbonix.com.auHEADQUARTERS
Australia
Company Facts
Founded
2011
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
employees 10-50
Primary Region
Oceania
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
Certifications & Memberships
Carbonix and CASA Certify First SAIL III Drone in Australia
Carbonix says it is the first company in Australia to receive SAIL III certification for a drone, clearing a path to scalable long-range BVLOS operations. Sydney-based autonomous aviation company Carbonix has become the first company in Australia to achieve Safety Assurance Integrity Level (SAIL) III drone certification, according to the company. Carbonix says the milestone, […] The post Carbonix and CASA Certify First SAIL III Drone in Australia appeared first on DRONELIFE.
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