MAYSVILLE, KY, USA, Jan 8, 2026 – Carlson Software, Inc. and Camflite, Inc. have agreed to a merger of resources and staffing to establish Carlson Software as America’s newest domestic drone manufacturer. Carlson, through the New Jersey offices of Camflite, Inc., will produce the “CRD1” quad-copter drone, which is already popular with land surveyors and other mapping agencies. The CRD1 works with camera-only mounts or in combination with LiDAR scanners. A variation of the CRD1 also works with bathymetric devices for underwater mapping applications.
Several new drone models are currently under development for specific applications.
The Camflite operation brings to Carlson Software a variety of manufacturing and design capabilities, supplementing those of Carlson’s York, UK and Lisbon, Portugal offices, including CNC machining, basic pick-and-place PCB board manufacture, and high-quality 3D printing. Carlson Software will be expanding these capabilities with a parallel production line to be developed in Maysville, Kentucky.
The Camflite drone manufacturing dovetails perfectly with Carlson PhotoCapture for image and LiDAR processing, leading “downstream” to AI-generated feature extraction for mapping in CAD using the Carlson PointCloud Module.
As Senior Director of Counterterrorism at the National Security Council Sebastian Gorka recently stated, “Drones are a large part of America’s future security. They must be made in the USA.” And with this merger of resources, Carlson now offers the full solution for drone-based mapping, all MADE IN AMERICA!
For more information on the Carlson CRD1, visit carlsonsw.com/crd1
For more information on Carlson, visit carlsonsw.com
For more information on Camflite, visit camflite.com
About Carlson Software Inc.
Founded in 1983, Carlson Software Inc. specializes in CAD design software, field data collection, laser measurement and machine control solutions for the civil engineering, surveying, GIS, construction, and mining industries worldwide, providing one-source technology solutions for the entire project cycle. Carlson Software is headquartered in Maysville, Ky., U.S.A., with branch offices in Boston, Mass.; Almere, The Netherlands; Brisbane, Australia; Ottawa, Canada; and York, England.
About Camflite
Camflite is a premier aerospace company based in New Jersey that specializes in the design and manufacture of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Their state-of-the-art platforms allow for aerial operations anywhere in the world, providing customers with the ability to conduct their missions at optimal cost. Camflite focuses on providing solutions for customers in the areas of protection, mapping, and monitoring with the mission to empower customers to achieve their objectives by providing them with the tools and technology they need.
