1978
Jordi Santacana finds his passion for aviation
Jordi Santacana (left), founder and CEO of the company, was very impressed with the radiocontrol plane that his father built that year.
1984
Hands-on
When he grew older, he decided to build himself his first wood model. After this one, he began to equip them with cameras and chemical film that was developed at home.
1986
First aerial photo
This year Jordi designed and built an RC airplane specially made for aerial photograpy. After a few tests some of the photos were good enough to be sold to the owners of some farms and houses, the price of each photo was 100 pts (about 0,60 €)
1991
Turning more ambitious
He thought that he would like to feel the experience of flying inside the aircraft, so he decided to build his own full-size ultralight airplane. This time, he wouldn't be with the feet on the ground, he would be onboard the plane!
1994
It finally flies!
After 3 long years of construction he finished his plane. In order to prove that this years were worth he had to try it. He successfully flew it from Barcelona to Lyon (France) in only one day, and received the Gold Propeller Award for that.
2000
UAVs
After this unique experience, he built a ground control center, developed an autopilot, experimented with FPV glasses... and created his first autonomous UAV.
2000
UAV Company
After seeing the potential of this technology, he decided to establish the first European civilian drone company, and one of the firsts movers in the world. CATUAV designed, manufactured and operated fixed-wing drones for a big number of applications types. The company began to grow.
2010
Drone Boom
The drone industry began to experience a big boost. Tens of companies were created every day, hundreds of pilot licenses were issued every week... The CATUAV team foresaw the need of this industry to count with a drone center.
2014
BCN Drone Center fully operative!
CATUAV purchased a strategic property, obtained a segregated airspace from aviation authorities and constructed a bioclimatic building. The BCN Drone Center became a reality!