PEMBROKE DOCK, Wales—As Steve Jobs did at that fateful 2007 presentation , Ivan Reedman says that I'm one of only a few people to hold a transformative technology in the palm of my hand. This device—ultralight to the point that it feels nearly fragile—weighs roughly half what the latest iPhone does. And just as Apple's release was technically more "gamechanger" than "pioneer," Reedman believes his invention is radical enough to turn an existing industry upside down.

Prepare for the Zano, which Reedman hopes will become the iDrone of unmanned aerial devices.

"We want to make it ubiquitous like iPhones," said Reedman, managing director (CEO) and head of research and development for Torquing Group. The company's soon-to-be-released Zano microdrone weighs just under 60 grams, and it’s small enough to fit into practically any bag. While its size and portability will be major selling points, price may be what sets this apart. Torquing Group believes it could define and seize the low-end consumer drone market one £170 ($254) Zano at a time.

Even at its slightly higher planned American retail price ($300), Zano would be significantly more affordable than most drones currently dominating the industry. The most basic DJI Phantom 3 starts at $999, as does the 3D Robotics Solo. The newcomer Ghost Drone retails for $799, while the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 goes for $399. And unlike some of its gimbal-stabilized competitors, Torquing plans on having Zano users automatically send video footage to the company's servers so it can be corrected in post-production.

Early demand certainly appears to exist. In January 2015, the Welsh drone startup concluded its Kickstarter campaign to fund production of the Zano. It raised over £2.3 million ($3.4 million) in under two months, becoming the most crowdfunded European project ever. This summer, Torquing says it will ship drones to the more than 12,000 people who backed the project.

There's only one problem. Despite Zano's release date being less than two months away, no one outside Torquing has actually flown the drone. And it's questions about the project that are truly beginning to take off.

A Welsh work in progress

Ars visited Torquing last month for an exclusive tour of the company's offices. After spending a couple of hours with the Zano team, we don’t have a good sense of how well the device actually flies. Although we heard more about its touted "swarm" feature, we didn't see the drone working in a real-world situation; we were merely able to hold a Zano and verify its existence.

Reece Crowther, the company’s head of marketing, regretfully informed us that we turned up just before a shipment of 500 last-minute prototypes arrived. Torquing, therefore, said it was unable to let us fly one. At the time, Reedman noted that only 12 Zanos existed, and we saw what appeared to be only a few of them.

This secrecy isn't new. Torquing Group has been reticent to show off the Zano’s full capabilities even at trade shows. The company has been strategically stingy with examples of the Zano's in-flight capabilities, too, only recently releasing a "Zano tennis" demonstration of the drone's obstacle avoidance capability. The video depicts two employees volleying a mid-flight Zano back-and-forth for a few minutes.

But Reedman insists that production is in progress, and he told Ars that most of Torquing's drones will be made directly in the United Kingdom. Except for the basic printing of the circuit boards, the company hopes to create and test the Zanos at its facility, which currently sits in the Pembrokeshire Science & Technology Park, a rebranded large office space that was originally dubbed the "Technium" when built in 2006. Currently it houses a number of energy startups, consulting firms, and law offices. Torquing is the single largest tenant, and the company has ambitions of eventually taking over the entire park.

But walking through the offices today, it’s clear the startup is still in process of setting up testing rooms and new server rooms, re-jiggering its existing space to serve new purposes. We saw freshly painted walls and newly constructed staircases, and we met a room full of developers and engineers busily working on Zano’s software and forthcoming online user interface. The company's Kickstarter originally listed June 2015 as its award shipping date, but Reedman said that's actually when production will start and early July is more realistic for shipping. Either target feels like a stretch.

Torquing is far from new, however. Reedman explained that after moving to this region of Wales in 2010, the company began as a consultancy working on transportation technology and robotics. It even took a failed detour into local golf tours. Only after the company moved to the Science & Tech Park in 2011 did it find a new line of work.

"We had a request to do a drone," Reedman told Ars with a grin. "So we did a drone."

The CEO admitted his personal background isn't in drones but in commercial law. Over time he became a self-taught programmer. As for the company's latest focus, it turns out the move to Wales was a fortuitous choice. Unlike a major city like London, Pembroke Dock lacks tall buildings, and there’s plenty of space to fly. Even better, the new West Wales UAV Centre is just 44 miles up the road.

But as we toured the office, Reedman explained drone production isn't even his ultimate goal. His personal plan is to "springboard into a multi-million pound business" by selling Zanos, then creating a platform around the drones that could serve tangential products like home security systems. In that scenario, a homeowner could keep a drone that would launch from its charging base when triggered by a motion sensor or some other event.

"We’re not selling hardware, we’re selling a service," Reedman said. The CEO sees the company’s primary way to make money down the line as in-app purchases. These would vary, adding on new flight features like the ability to fly upside down or related services. But even if the drones themselves are merely a building block, Reedman explicitly said that hardware sales would not be a loss leader for the rest of the business. "Every part of the business is profitable."

Reedman declined to provide specific financials, later elaborating over e-mail that the company has yet to make "huge profits." The CEO sees the necessary growth to carry out his vision, however. "Until early last year, we were a small consulting research and development firm of six people. We now employ 30 people and are on track to turn over in excess of £5 million this financial year and substantially more in the next," he wrote.

That £5 million figure? Slightly less than half that amount (£2.3 million) came from Kickstarter, while the remaining will come from selling an estimated 15,000 additional Zanos. "We have already sold just shy of 2,000," Reedman said. "And we are in negotiations for at least another 10,000 units with various customers."

Listing image by Cyrus Farivar