Elistair

Elistair is a French company that develops tethered unmanned aircraft systems, in which a drone is powered and connected through a cable from the ground so it can stay airborne for long periods. It was founded in 2014 by Guilhem de Marliave and Timothée Penet and is registered in Dardilly near Lyon. The company also has a US presence in Wilmington, North Carolina. It serves defence, public safety and private security users and says its systems are used in more than 70 countries.

Its product range includes the Orion family of tethered drones (Orion 2, Orion 2.2 TE and Orion HL for tactical communications) and Khronos, an automated tethered ISR system that deploys from a transportable DroneBox in under two minutes and is designed to operate without GNSS. Elistair also makes tethering stations such as Safe-T 2 and Ligh-T, together with tether modules for third-party drones including the DJI M30 and, since October 2026, the Parrot ANAFI UKR.

In 2022 the French defence procurement agency DGA awarded Elistair a framework agreement for Orion 2 systems to monitor its missile test areas. In 2026 Khronos was used by French forces in phases of the joint military exercise ORION 2026 for surveillance and tactical communications.