We are excited to announce the expansion of our R&D and manufacturing team with the addition of two industry veterans, ramping-up their efforts towards large scale manufacturing of their Black Swan UAV and preparation for first commercial flights.
Atanas Gagov has joined DRONAMICS as Director of Engineering and Project Management. Atanas has deep experience as an Engineering leader from some of the world’s most iconic brands, such as Apple, Tesla, and most recently Waymo, who are an Alphabet company in the autonomous automotive space. Atanas brings with him the experience of building processes that link up design, production, and supply chain, as well as, complex program management.
His experience and knowledge will be essential for our growing manufacturing and R&D efforts in Sofia. With more than 120 people involved in the R&D and manufacturing including contractors, Atanas will be a vital link between our engineering and manufacturing departments going forward. His role would be crucial in our efforts to scale up our manufacturing.
Andy Cox is our new Director of Systems and Avionics in the R&D management team of DRONAMICS. After working with us as an advisor for the last three years, Andy is taking the role within the management team and will partner closely with Atanas Gagov, Director of Engineering and Project Management, as we integrate our avionics and other systems, gearing up to begin our flight-testing program and prepare for mass production of the Black Swan fleet.
Andy brings considerable leadership experience from leading global companies and with vast experience in High Altitude programs including the development and manufacture of the crew capsule for the Breitling Orbiter III, the first non-stop flight around the world in 1999, supporting the early development of the Zephyr HAPS aircraft, developed the capsule and survival systems for the Mission Impossible World Record Flight for the Hot Air Balloon Altitude Record. He was also the Engineering Director for the QinetiQ 1 crew flight platform, and also had responsibility for flight procedures. In 2014 Andy set up and led the Facebook UAV team developing the Aquilla UAV. He established the team in the UK and US and led the successful rollout of the aircraft within 15 months and first flight in 2016. Andy was responsible for the Design, Development, Manufacture of the aircraft, which flew successfully proved the capability.