History
Delivering UAS Commercial Services Since 2000
2000
UAV's
After a long experience with manned aviation, Jordi Santacana decided to move into unmanned, building a ground control center, developed an autopilot, experimented with FPV glasses... and created his first autonomous UAV.
2000
CATUAV is born
Seeing the potential of this technology, he decided to found what is now one of Europe's most veteran companies in the field of civil drones and one of the first in the world.
2006
UAS aerial services
After six years of intensive development, the UAS Technology is deployed to provide aerial services in a wide range of applications. CATUAV pioneers several applications, such as UAS mapping (first maps produced in 2008), precision agriculture (using multispectral and thermal cameras in UAS since 2008) or emergency applications (earthquake area mapped in less than 24h in 2011). This phase of the company allowed the team to get the know-how about UAS applications, how to legally deploy them and having a successful UAS service model.
2010
The Drone Boom
The drone industry was beginning to experience significant growth. Dozens of companies were being created every day, hundreds of pilots were obtaining licenses every week… The CATUAV team considered the future need for a drone testing center.
2014
The BCN Drone Center is fully operational
CATUAV acquired strategic land, obtained segregated airspace allocation from the aviation authorities, and built a bioclimatic building. The BCN Drone Center was now a reality!
2017
First expansion
After 3 years of commercial use the test site proved to be a success. Hundreds of costumers from multiple countries already came to the test site to develop and test their systems or get trained. A new expansion is inaugurated to have enough room in the test site to all the activities surrounding it. Since then, every year we have keep our effort in improving the center with new facilities and equipment, better runway and expanding our outdoor lab capabilities.
2023
LUC approval
BCN Drone Center became the first operator in Spain to receive a Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC), featuring special CONOPS for a dedicated testing sandbox. This certification provides a regulatory compliance framework, enabling UAS testing in the specific category with significantly reduced timelines—from several months to just a few weeks.
Today
We keep moving forward
BCN Drone Center continues to offer a comprehensive range of services to support manufacturers, operators, and end users in successfully bringing their drone projects to market. With a collaborative mindset, we remain at the forefront of the UAS industry, driving innovation and efficiency in drone deployment.
