Selçuk Bayraktar is a Turkish technology entrepreneur and civil society activist. He is the developer of Turkey’s first national and original UAV system, the Bayraktar TB2, and of Turkey’s first indigenous combat unmanned aircraft prototype, the Bayraktar KIZILELMA. As Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Baykar, Selçuk Bayraktar also serves as President of the Board of Trustees of the T3 Vakfı. Married to Sümeyye Erdoğan Bayraktar in 2016, Selçuk Bayraktar is the father of two children and holds a private pilot’s license.

Selçuk Bayraktar, the architect of Türkiye’s first national and original S/UAV systems and its first indigenous combat unmanned aircraft, the Bayraktar KIZILELMA, was born in 1979 in Sarıyer, Istanbul. After graduating from Robert College in 1997, he continued his undergraduate studies in Electronics and Communications Engineering at Istanbul Technical University until 2002. He completed his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) between 2002 and 2004, conducting pioneering research on UAV formation flights and robot coordination—the first of their kind worldwide. While pursuing graduate and doctoral studies at MIT, he worked on automatic flight control algorithms for unmanned helicopter systems and completed a second master’s degree in 2006. In 2007, he returned to Türkiye and continued developing unmanned aerial vehicle technologies at Baykar.

Since 2007, Selçuk Bayraktar has served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Baykar, and since 2021 as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He leads the development of avionics system architecture, flight control and navigation algorithms, system kinematics and dynamics, electronic hardware, and embedded software for Türkiye’s national and indigenous UAV systems developed under Baykar.

He led the team that developed the Bayraktar TB2 S/UAV system—the first national UAV of Türkiye, which entered the Turkish Armed Forces inventory in 2014, has been exported to 34 countries (as of December 2024), and has completed one million successful flight hours, establishing itself as the world’s best in its class. He also developed the Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA, Türkiye’s first offensive UAV with a 6-ton takeoff weight, and delivered it to the Turkish Armed Forces in 2021. As of October 2024, the Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA has been exported to 10 countries.

^{Bayraktar TB3 - Bayraktar TB2 - Bayraktar KIZILELMA - Bayraktar AKINCI}

Selçuk Bayraktar leads the development projects of the Bayraktar TB3 SİHA, the first UAV in the world to perform takeoff and landing on short-deck ships on 19 November 2024, and of Türkiye’s first combat unmanned aircraft, the Bayraktar KIZILELMA. The Bayraktar KIZILELMA conducted its first flight on 14 December 2022, prior to its public unveiling in 2023, and under Selçuk Bayraktar’s leadership achieved formation flights never before accomplished in the history of global aviation. In this context, the two UAVs of the Muharip class—the Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA and the Bayraktar KIZILELMA Combat UAV—have successfully performed multiple close-coordination flights, the first such maneuvers ever recorded in the history of global aviation.

Through the Fergani Uzay technology initiative, he conducts space activities, leading projects to develop low Earth orbit satellite constellations and orbital transfer vehicles. Its first satellite, FGN-100-d1, was launched into space on 15 January 2025 at 22:09 Türkiye time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in the ABD and successfully entered orbit.

During the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2019, Selçuk Bayraktar managed the development of a domestic intensive care ventilator in Türkiye. The respiratory device, developed jointly by Baykar, BIOSYS, ASELSAN, and ARÇELİK, has been exported and donated by Türkiye to numerous countries.

As founder and President of the Board of Trustees of the CANSAĞLIĞI Vakfı, he continues to support scientific projects in genetics, immunology, and other fields. He is also President of the Board of Trustees of the Kültür ve Medeniyet Vakfı (KÜME), which aims to view the journey of human civilization as a whole and generate solutions to social challenges. The KÜME Vakfı seeks to encourage artists and cultural initiatives producing original work.

As President of the Board of Trustees of the Türkiye Teknoloji Takımı Vakfı (T3 Vakfı), he supports talented young individuals capable of contributing to national and indigenous technology development and organizes educational programs. Guided by the National Technology Initiative vision, the T3 Vakfı organizes TEKNOFEST annually—the world’s largest aviation, space, and technology event. TEKNOFEST, an international event, was also held in Azerbaycan in 2022.

On 1 April 2021, Selçuk Bayraktar was awarded the Karabakh Order by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for his contribution to the liberation of Karabakh through the Bayraktar TB2 SİHA systems developed by Baykar.

In 2022, he received the Ukrainian State Merit Order by order of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On 4 April 2023, Bayraktar was awarded the Military Cooperation Medal by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov. On 2 October 2023, he was awarded the ASAN Hizmet Medal by presidential decree of Azerbaijan, recognizing individuals who have contributed to the country.

On 18 October 2023, he was awarded Mali’s highest decoration, the National Order of Mali, by President Assimi Goïta for his contributions and services to the African nation of Mali.

On 28 February 2024, he was awarded the First Class Order of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine for his significant contributions to Ukraine’s national security and defense, and for enhancing its defense capabilities under martial law.

On 9 October 2024, he was awarded the Kyrgyzstan Dank State Order by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov for his contributions to the country’s defense capacity and military potential.

1. Automatic Takeoff and Landing System for Aircraft (Turkish Patent Institute)

2. Electromechanical Servo Motor Controlled Actuator System and Control Method Capable of Detecting Changing Operating Conditions (Turkish Patent Institute)

3. Triple-Redundant Flight Control System (Turkish Patent Institute Ref: PT2015-00693)

4. ECG Device (Turkish Patent Institute Ref: PT2015-00693)

Experimental Cooperative Control of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

S Bayraktar, GE Fainekos, GJ Pappas

Decision and Control, 2004. CDC. 43rd IEEE Conference on 4,

2004

Synergies in Feature Localization by Air-Ground Robot Teams

B Grocholsky, S Bayraktar, V Kumar, CJ Taylor, G Pappas Experimental Robotics IX, 352-361

2006

Flight Modeling and Experimental Autonomous Hover Control of a Fixed Wing Mini-UAV at High Angle of Attack

HD Blauwe, S Bayraktar, E Feron, F Lokumcu

2007

UAV and UGV Collaboration for Active Ground Feature Search and Localization

B Grocholsky, S Bayraktar, V Kumar, G Pappas

Proc. of the AIAA 3rd “Unmanned Unlimited” Technical Conference

2004

Experiments With Small Helicopter Automated Landings at Unusual Attitudes

S Bayraktar, E Feron

arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.1744

2007

Experiments With Small Unmanned Helicopter Nose-Up Landings

S Bayraktar, E Feron

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics 32 (1), 332-337

2009

Hybrid Modeling and Experimental Cooperative Control of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

S Bayraktar, G Fainekos, GJ Pappas

Technical Report, Department of CIS, University of Pennsylvania

2004

Aggressive Landing Maneuvers for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

S Bayraktar

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2006

Hybrid Modeling and Experimental Cooperative Control of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

S Bayraktar, GE Fainekos, GJ Pappas

2004

Aggressive Landing Maneuvers for 3-DOF Helicopter UAV

S Bayraktar, E Feron

AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control, Keystone, Colo

2006

A Novel Mosaic Quality Measurement Method for UAV Surveillance and Remote Sensing

T Buyukyazi, S Bayraktar, I Lazoglu

ISPRS-International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and …

2013

Real-Time Image Stabilization and Mosaicking by Using Ground Station CPU in UAV Surveillance

T Buyukyazi, S Bayraktar, I Lazoglu

Proceedings of the IEEE 6th International Conference on Recent Advances in …

2013

Real-Time, Hardware Independent Stabilization and Mosaicing in Low Altitude UAV Surveillance

Tolga Büyükyazı, Selçuk Bayraktar, Prof. Dr. İsmail Lazoğlu;

Journal of Field Robotics: Special Issue on Low Altitude UAV Flight

2013

Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Technology: Design and Development Studies

Ömer İnak, Haluk Bayraktar, Selçuk Bayraktar, SAVTEK 2006, ODTÜ

2006

Design Features of Bayraktar Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Haluk Bayraktar, Selçuk Bayraktar, Prof. Dr. Ünver Kaynak, SAVTEK 2006, ODTÜ

2006

Bayraktar Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System Components and Performance Analysis

Haluk Bayraktar, Selçuk Bayraktar, HASEM 06, Kayseri

2006

An Unmanned Aircraft Project from Ideal to Reality

Selçuk Bayraktar, Haluk Bayraktar; HITEK 2004 Symposium, Air Force Academy

2004