Traditionally, we think of drones as lightweight, compact, and ultra-manageable vehicles — the opposite of traditional aircraft. To an extent, that’s because most hobbyist starter drones are made to fit into a backpack or even a pocket, with limited flight time being the tradeoff. 

But scale that up, and you enter a whole different league. Industrial and military-grade drones are built for endurance, not portability. With larger wingspans and reinforced structures, these giants of the sky prioritize range, stability, and precision, and the five below are the biggest and most capable drones on the market today.

RQ-4 Global Hawk

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk carries the title of the world’s largest UAV with a 

130-foot wingspan that rivals a Boeing 737. Built for long-haul surveillance, it soars above 60,000 feet and stays airborne for over 32 hours, covering up to 12,000 miles in one go. It’s not just big—it’s relentless.

The advanced on-board sensors for imagery intelligence (IMINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and moving target indicator (MTI) can scan entire countries, like South Korea, in just one day. But all these capabilities come at a premium price: $82.5 million per unit, making it more expensive than many piloted military aircraft. 

MQ-9 Reaper

MQ-9 Reaper is the second-largest military drone. Built by General Atomics, this 66-foot wingspan UAV is the U.S. military’s go-to for intelligence, surveillance, and precision strikes. Powered by a Honeywell turboprop engine, the Reaper can carry over 3,700 pounds of mixed payload, think Hellfire missiles and smart bombs,  while cruising more than 1,000 miles from base.

With a dual-crew team at the helm (pilot and sensor operator), the Reaper offers full-motion video from its Multi-Spectral Targeting System—infrared, shortwave, laser, you name it—all fused into a single tactical view. It loiters for hours, waiting to strike high-value or fast-moving targets at a moment’s notice. Fully satellite-linked and fielded as a complete system, it includes not just the aircraft but a full suite of control stations and support equipment. 

PHASA-35

PHASA-35 represents a different category of large drone — one that can cruise in the stratosphere. With a massive 35-meter wingspan and a feather-light weight of just 150 kg (330 pounds), this High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS) drone floats at over 66,000 feet for months at a time. By day, it soaks up the sun through photovoltaic arrays. By night, it runs on energy stored in onboard fuel cells. 

PHASA-35 is designed to deliver low-cost, ultra-persistent coverage for surveillance, communications, border protection, and even 5G networks, all without the price tag or carbon footprint of traditional satellites. Its modular payload bay also supports next-gen ISR tools and evolving tech, making it a plug-and-play platform for both defense and commercial use. 

Zephyr 

The Airbus Zephyr is a solar-powered stratospheric flyer with satellite ambitions minus the rocket launch. With a 25-meter wingspan and weighing just 65 kg, this ultra-light High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) climbs to over 60,000 feet in about 10 hours and stays there, cruising far above commercial air traffic. Its solar arrays juice up by day, while next-gen batteries keep it airborne through the night. The current endurance record is 64 days. And with battery advances driven by the EV boom, a 90+ day span is well within reach.

Zephyr’s payload capacity may be just 5 kg, but it punches above its weight in capability, perfect for ISR, environmental monitoring, and future 5G connectivity. It offers persistent, low-cost coverage where satellites can’t go and conventional aircraft won’t last. After two decades of R&D, Zephyr is finally nearing commercial lift-off, ready to rewrite the rulebook on long-duration aerial surveillance and communication.

Ehang  EH216-S

EHang EH216-S is the largest passenger UAV on the market, recently cleared for mass production in China. This sleek VTOL air taxi sports a carbon fiber fuselage, aviation-grade aluminum frame, and 16 coaxial rotors powered by 16 high-efficiency motors. It’s built to carry two passengers at speeds up to 130 km/h for trips up to 30 km—no pilot required.

The brains behind the flight? An automated control system and smart Battery Management System (BMS) that juggles 12 batteries to keep everything running safely, even if one goes down. Lightweight yet tough, the EH216-S combines epoxy composites and sensorless FOC motor control to maximize thrust and minimize heat. With successful manned and unmanned tests under its belt, this 620 kg aerial marvel is ready to revolutionize short-haul urban transport. 

Curious to learn more about different drones? Browse Bavovna’s UAV directory. 

Drones, aka unmanned aerial vehicles, are often considered a 21st-century gizmo. But they actually go back over a century. So, who invented the first UAV? 

The credit doesn’t go to one single person because the technology advanced in stages, along with wider shifts in scientific knowledge and manufacturing. But one of the pioneers was Archibald Montgomery Low, who developed and flew the first actual remote-controlled unmanned aircraft in 1917. His accomplishments have earned him the title “father of drones”. 

Yet, drone technology also hinges on the advances made by Nikola Tesla, earlier in the 19th century, as well as Peter Cooper, Reginald Denny, and Max Boucher, among others, later in the 20th century. 

The Origins of UAV Technology

To understand how drones became possible, let’s go back to the late 19th century. It’s the Electrical Exhibition day in Madison Square Garden, New York, and Nikola Tesla is demonstrating his latest research: a radio-controlled boat. 

While it looked like a present-day toy, the four-foot-long model torpedo boat was a true breakthrough back then. Tesla could wirelessly control the boat’s movement, direction, and lights, using radio waves transmitted from a control box.  Though not an aerial device, Tesla’s invention established fundamental principles of remote control that would later enable modern-day drone technology.

During an anticipatory address, Tesla proposed that the remote control technology would one day render war impossible since even lesser countries would have an effective defense mechanism — a prediction that didn’t quite hold because counter-drone technology developed pretty much at the same pace.  But his ideas, along with Marconi’s invention of the radio transmitter in 1895, indeed were a stepping stone for military UAVs. 

Invention of Military Drones During World War I 

The very first real unmanned aerial vehicles controlled from the ground emerged during World War I. The greatest pioneer in this technology was British engineer Archibald Montgomery Low, who is popularly known as the “father of the drone” or “the father of radio guidance systems”.

In 1916, as an employee of the British military, Low created the Aerial Target, which became the world’s first radio-controlled aircraft. By using compressed air (an innovation in itself!), Low’s team successfully showed remote vehicle control during the short flight of the pioneering aircraft on March 21, 1917. Equipped with a single film camera, Aerial Target was the first drone with a camera. 

During subsequent years, Low continued to tinker with the design and created an electrically powered gyroscope — a key precursor for modern-era internal navigation systems (INS). He also created an early electrically-steered rocket, foreshadowing World War II weaponry. 

Meanwhile, in the US, a father-son Sperry duo and inventor Peter Cooper Hewitt were working on an “Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane” project — an unmanned aircraft for carring explosives. 

In the 1930s, Reginald Denny, a British actor and aviation enthusiast, took the technology further. He created the first purpose-designed drone, the Radioplane OQ-2, used to train anti-aircraft gunners during the World War II.

Source: National Museum of the United States Air Force 

France’s military pilot Max Boucher also played an important part in the growth of unmanned aviation. His unmanned aircraft, with a wingspan of 15 meters, a length of 10 meters, and a weight of 500 kg, carried out several successful flights, proving the value of autonomous reconnaissance missions.  

Following World War I and II, drone technology for drones improved further. The Radioplane Company started experimenting with the use of mounted pulse jets in place of propellers. The decade witnessed quick technological advancements that would go on to develop present-day military and commercial drones.

The Rise of Compact, Commercial Drones 

The first hobbyist drones started to crop up during the late 1990s. Canadian Draganfly launched Draganflyer in 1999 — one of the first commercial quadcopters with a camera.

French Parrot was established in 1994 and started capturing market share in the 2010s after releasing the first line-up of smartphone-controlled camera drones. 

DJI, founded in 2006, further popularized the consumer drone segment. Its Phantom lineup, introduced early in the 2010s, married premium-quality cameras and intuitive controls into an affordable, accessible product for hobbyists as well as professional use. 

Today, there are hundreds of drone manufacturers, ranging from large multinational corporations to specialized startups, producing MilTech, industrial inspection, agriculture, and mapping drones. You can learn more about market leaders from our UAV Directory.