Solar-Powered Aircraft Takes Flight Test

| Aerospace Testing

Horus A is a solar stratospheric fixed-wing aircraft with high payload capability

AV has successfully flight tested its new solar-powered aircraft with high stratospheric payload capabilities

AeroVironment (AV) has flight-tested an upgraded Sunglider, enhancing its High-Altitude Platform-Station (HAPS) capabilities for commercial and government markets. The result is Horus A, the new version of Sunglider for government applications. Horus A is a solar-powered UAS capable of carrying up to 150 lb of payload with 1.5 kW of available power, offering high stratospheric performance.

Horus A features enhancements in all areas of the aircraft design and avionics and offers features such as additional autonomy to increase mission flexibility and multiple redundant systems for mission assurance. Horus A received airworthiness approval from the US army and an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate to allow flight testing in the national airspace. These enhancements flow back into the continued development of Sunglider with SoftBank as both companies strive to deliver unrivalled payload capacity and persistence to unlock the full potential of both stratospheric flight and the latest, most capable payloads.

“During this recent Horus A flight, we demonstrated the ability to carry multiple payloads for the US DoD and transmit real-time data, advancing the viability of HAPS for government applications,” said Jeff Rodrian, AV’s senior vice president and general manager of MacCready Works. “This flight marks another milestone in our stratospheric platform’s progress.”

Horus A simultaneously operated a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Tactical Grade Mesh Network radio during the mission portion of the flight. Covering the majority of the flight test points, AV was able to validate multiple new and redundant systems, payload interoperability and performance enhancements. AV also demonstrated the ability to effectively manoeuvre in adverse and turbulent weather, landing safely, ready to return to the Stratosphere for future longer-duration missions. Horus A’s satellite-based BLOS radio and robust avionics and datalink suite will enable this platform to fill critical defence capability gaps such as resilient communications and network extension, Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (APNT), Space Domain Awareness, long-endurance ISR, and deep sensing. Many of these capabilities can enable swarms of smaller uncrewed systems like Switchblade 600 to be most effective on the battlefield.

Jonathan Newell
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