Unusual Machines

Overview

Unusual Machines, Inc. is an Orlando, Florida company that makes components for small drones — motors, flight controllers, first-person-view headsets — and sells them to other businesses and through its own retail channel (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). It trades on the NYSE American under the ticker UMAC after a February 2024 initial public offering (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). Its chief executive is Allan Evans, and in November 2024 it named Donald Trump Jr. to its board of advisors — a move that briefly doubled its share price and permanently changed how the company is written about (Nasdaq (TipRanks)).

The appointment is the headline on nearly every article about the company. The more interesting story is what the company says about itself when it’s not talking about Trump Jr.: it does not want to be a defense contractor, it sells nothing to the U.S. government directly, and its CEO insists the post-election stock surge had as much to do with Washington’s war on Chinese drones as with any one adviser (Sherwood News). Unusual Machines is a small American manufacturer trying to ride a protectionist tailwind while keeping one foot out of politics — with the president’s son on its letterhead.

Origins: three names, one spinout

The company’s own filings trace a restless corporate history. It was incorporated in Puerto Rico on July 11, 2019, under the name Red Cat Motor Corporation; on October 20, 2020, it became AerocarveUS Corporation; and on July 5, 2022, it took the name Unusual Machines, Inc. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). In November 2022 it signed an agreement with Red Cat Holdings and that company’s CEO, Jeffrey Thompson, to buy Red Cat’s consumer drone business — the assets that would become Unusual Machines’ actual operations (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission).

The deal and the debut happened together. On February 16, 2024, the company closed its IPO — 1,250,000 shares of common stock at $4.00 per share on the NYSE American — and simultaneously acquired Fat Shark and Rotor Riot from Red Cat Holdings (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). Fat Shark makes ultra-low-latency first-person-view video goggles for drone pilots; Rotor Riot is an e-commerce marketplace aimed at the FPV sub-segment of the drone market (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). Two months later, on April 22, 2024, the company reincorporated from Puerto Rico to Nevada (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission).

In short: Unusual Machines began life as a Red Cat shell, changed names twice, went public, and bought its operating businesses with the IPO proceeds. Its stated strategy since then has been onshoring — building critical drone components in the United States rather than sourcing them from China (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission).

What it sells

Unusual Machines describes itself as specializing in “the production and sale of small drones and essential components through B2B sales and a curated retail channel,” with strong brand recognition for Rotor Riot and Fat Shark “particularly in the FPV sub-segment of the drone market” (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). Its Orlando operation manufactures drone motors — a factory the company said was moving to three shifts — along with flight controllers and FPV headsets (Sherwood News). The Riot Brave F7 flight controller received the Defense Department’s “Blue UAS” certification, a designation for trusted drone components (Nasdaq (TipRanks)).

What it pointedly does not do is sell to the Pentagon. “We don’t sell anything to the US government directly,” Evans told Sherwood News, adding that the company has no plans to become a defense contractor — “Never” (Sherwood News). Its customers are commercial and enterprise users, a posture that sets it apart from most American drone firms chasing defense contracts.

The Trump Jr. appointment and the stock ride

In November 2024, Unusual Machines announced that Donald Trump Jr. was joining its advisory board (Nasdaq (TipRanks)). Shares surged on the news — up about 98% over five trading days, roughly 49% at the time the report was written — before giving back part of the gain; the company’s market capitalization was still under $75 million (Nasdaq (TipRanks)).

The company framed the hire as operational. “Don Jr. joining our board of advisors provides us unique expertise we need as we bring drone component manufacturing back to America,” Evans said. “He brings a wealth of experience to our team and we look forward to working with him” (Nasdaq (TipRanks)). Trump Jr. supplied the policy pitch: “The need for drones is obvious. It is also obvious that we must stop buying Chinese drones and Chinese drone parts” (Nasdaq (TipRanks)).

But Evans has repeatedly pushed back on the idea that the company is a political play. “All the drone stocks jumped after the election,” he told Sherwood News, arguing the sector-wide move reflected Washington’s direction of travel rather than any single appointment; he attributed the subsequent decline “in large part” to the longstanding government shutdown, and said of his company: “We don’t mix with the government very much” (Sherwood News). That is a striking line from the CEO of a company whose marquee adviser is the president’s eldest son.

The regulatory tailwind

Whether or not politics drives the stock, policy clearly drives the business. In December 2024 the Federal Communications Commission moved to bar foreign-made drones and components as an “unacceptable national security risk,” a ruling that froze out DJI, which holds more than 90% of the nonmilitary small-drone market (Sherwood News). Separately, the National Defense Authorization Act requires U.S. agencies to buy American-made drones, and the administration has made domestic drone production a stated priority (Sherwood News).

Evans has been candid about what this means: manufacturing moved back to the U.S., combined with automation and what he called Western creativity, can produce a globally competitive manufacturer (Sherwood News). The company was also positioned to benefit from the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance program, which planned to buy 90,000 drones in 2026 — requiring roughly 400,000 motors, Evans noted — even as he insisted his own firm would not sell to the military directly (Sherwood News).

The Draganfly deal

On September 28, 2026, Reuters reported that Unusual Machines and an unnamed U.S. asset manager had agreed to invest $10 million in Draganfly, a Canadian drone maker — $5 million each at $5.35 a share, based on the September 25 close, with the deal expected to close around September 30 (Reuters). Draganfly said the proceeds would fund “strategic capabilities” and working capital (Reuters).

The deal drew conflict-of-interest scrutiny: Trump Jr. and his brother Eric have also backed drone companies XTEND and Powerus, and Draganfly has supplied drones to Ukraine (Reuters). The market read was favorable to the investor: Unusual Machines was up about 89% year-to-date while Draganfly shares had fallen roughly 23% (Reuters).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not state Trump Jr.’s exact share count — a figure of 331,580 appeared only in a secondary-source snippet and was not verified from a full-read filing. It does not repeat the $150M raise at $17 per share or the 150-employee and 70,000-square-foot facility figures, which appeared only in a podcast-interview description rather than a full-read source. It does not assert the CEO’s graduate-degree credentials, which appeared only in a single-source press release. The Blue UAS certification claim comes from a single tier2 piece; the Defense Department’s own listing was not separately verified.