HAPSMobile Inc., a subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. and partly owned by AeroVironment, Inc., announced that an altitude of 62,500 feet (approximately 19 km) was reached during the fifth test flight for “Sunglider,” a solar-powered unmanned aircraft system (“UAS”) designed for stratospheric telecommunications platform systems. The test flight took place on September 21, 2020 (MT) at Spaceport America (“SpA”) in New Mexico. The Sunglider successfully reached the stratosphere in the short span of approximately three years since its development began.
HAPS (High Altitude Platform System) are radio stations operating in the stratosphere with an aim to provide wireless connectivity or perform remote sensing in isolated areas like mountains, coastal and desert areas. These qausi-stationary platforms (usually unmanned airplanes, airships or balloons) are stationed at an altitude of 20 to 50 kilometers above the Earth at a fixed, specified point relative to the Earth.
The test flight lasted a total of 20 hours and 16 minutes, with 5 hours and 38 minutes spent in the stratosphere. The world-class sized UAS not only reached the stratosphere, but it successfully completed its flight using a pre-flight battery charge and solar energy during the flight. The Sunglider also demonstrated its high-performance capabilities under extremely demanding conditions where wind speeds were greater than 58 knots (approximately 30 meters per second) and temperatures fell as low as -73 degrees Celsius.
5th Test Flight Overview (all times stated in US Mountain Time)
Maximum altitude | 62,500 feet (approx. 19 km) |
Total flight time | 20 hours and 16 minutes Take off: September 21, 5:16 AM Landing: September 22, 1:32 AM |
Flight time in the stratosphere | 5 hours and 38 minutes Stratosphere entry: September 21, 1:57 PM Stratosphere exit: September 21, 7:35 PM |
Test environment | Max. wind speed | 58 knots (approx. 30 meters per second) |
Lowest temp. | -73 degrees Celsius |
In addition to reaching the stratospheric flight milestone, an Internet connectivity test using a Communications payload jointly developed with Loon LLC (“Loon”) was successfully performed during the test flight. Using smartphones connected to the Internet through the payload in the stratosphere, members from Loon and AeroVironment successfully made a video call to HAPSMobile members based in Japan.
The success of this stratospheric test flight is a major step forward for HAPSMobile as it continues to pursue its mission of bridging the digital divide by building its business in the stratosphere, a new frontier for humankind. HAPSMobile will continue to work to revolutionize mobile networks by leveraging HAPS.
