Thursday, October 8, 2020

Aerovironment's Sunglider Sees Successful Stratospheric Test Flight

HAPSMobile, the developer of a solar-power, unmanned aircraft system which is part owned by Monrovia, California-based Aerovironment, has seen a successful stratospheric test flight of its solar powered unmanned glider, the company said late Wednesday. According to HAPSMobile--which is a subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. and minority owned by UAV developer Aerovironment--the solar power Sunglider reached an altitude of 62,500 feet on its fifth test flight. The test was made from Spaceport America in New Mexico on September 21st, and lasted 20 hours and 16 minutes. Aerovironment is the developer of the Sunglider unmanned aircraft. The companies also tied with Alphabet (the parent company of Google) and its Loon subsidiary to place an LTE payload, which provided broadband communications via the Sunglider, including multiple video calls. Aerovironment says the Sunglider as a wingspan of 262 feet and is propelled by 10 electric motors powered by solar panels covering the surface of the wing and rechargeable battery packs, and is designed for continuous, extended missions lasting for months without landing.