Pioneer of Türkiye’s indigenous armed drones, entrepreneur, master engineer and industrialist. Özdemir Bayraktar devoted his life, health and very existence to indigenous armed drones, in the field and by his computer, to make Türkiye fully independent – even if it meant living in his workplace during the last two decades of his life.

The son of the fisherman Lütfi Reis, a native of Trabzon-Sürmene, Özdemir Bayraktar was born in Garipçe, Sarıyer in 1949. A graduate of Kabataş High School, he studied Mechanical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University between 1967 and 1972. Upon receiving his undergraduate degree, Bayraktar worked with Prof. Ismail Hakkı Öz, a faculty member at ITU’s Engines Program, as a research assistant for two years, during which he completed his graduate studies on internal combustion engines.

Özdemir Bayraktar proceeeded to work with some of the pioneers of Türkiye’s industrial sector, including Burdur Traktör, Istanbul Segman and Uzel, as a technical administrator overseeing their establishment and new investments.

He married Canan Bayraktar, a graduate of Istanbul University’s School of Economics and a computer programmer at the Industrial Development Bank of Türkiye (TSKB). The coupe had three sons: Haluk, Selçuk and Ahmet.

Özdemir Bayraktar launched Baykar Makina in 1984 to contribute to Türkiye’s efforts to promote the localization of the auto industry. Having founded his company with a single electric drill, he oversaw the design and manufacturing of countless original machines as well as the design of parts processing and various tools for micromachining.

Having paved the way for Baykar’s development of indigenous and original unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), he played an active leadership role at all stages of project management from design and prototyping to manufacturing and investment planning.

Between 2005 and 2009, Özdemir Bayraktar personally led Baykar’s joint operations with the Turkish military in Southeastern Türkiye during the company’s R+D process for the Bayraktar Mini UAV, the first unmanned aerial vehicle built for the Turkish Armed Forces.

Özdemir Bayraktar, who designed all of Baykar’s indigenous and original products, was the proprietor of the original designs that made their mark on Bayraktar TB2 and Bayraktar AKINCI UCAV.

Throughout his life, he constantly blended his engineering skills with emerging technologies. His tenacity, determination, confidence and zeal to develop new things remained strong throughout his career.

Özdemir Bayraktar was awarded the Karabakh Order by H.E. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in 2021 in recognition of the contributions of Bayraktar TB2, Baykar’s indigenous and original product, to the liberation of Karabakh from Armenia’s occupation.

An avid aviator who held a private pilot license, he continues to be known as the pioneer of Türkiye’s venture into unmanned aerial vehicles.

An architect of the National Technology Initiative ideal, Özdemir Bayraktar worked diligently on all of his projects, refusing to budge on his values and upholding the maxim that “quality is in the details.”