SoftBank trials HAPS aircraft for stratospheric communications

During the early August trial, the Sunglider aircraft succeeded in achieving stratospheric flight, said SoftBank

Japanese operator SoftBank announced that the Sunglaider, its large-scale solar-powered uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) designed for High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) stratospheric telecommunications, was utilized in a field trial conducted by AeroVironment and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in New Mexico, the U.S.

During the trial, carried out in early August, Sunglider succeeded in achieving stratospheric flight, the Japanese operator said.

With a wingspan of 78 meters and the capability to carry payloads weighing up to 75kg, the Sunglider is larger than other publicly announced HAPS UAS, according to SoftBank, which added that it is an “improved version” of a previous model, boasting structural and functional enhancements designed for better performance.

SoftBank’s aircraft development partner AeroVironment utilized Sunglider for this field trial with the DoD. The field trial operation successfully demonstrated multi-payload, stratospheric flight, to support the DoD’s requirements and it gave SoftBank an opportunity to gain insights for future aircraft development. Through this field trial, SoftBank verified performance enhancements in the latest Sunglider aircraft,and it plans to utilize trial data for future aircraft development to make further improvements, the company said.

Junichi Miyakawa, president and CEO of SoftBank, said: “SoftBank began its HAPS program in 2017 as a global pioneer, and since then has been leading the industry in research and development, field trials, standardization and other activities to realize HAPS-based services. For our aircraft platform, we’ve been working with our partner AeroVironment to develop Sunglider, an industry-leading large-scale HAPS aircraft.”

“The HAPS service we’re aiming to provide will offer high-speed, high-capacity, high-quality, and stable communications that is only possible with a large-scale aircraft. We’re extremely pleased we could verify the significant performance improvements of Sunglider through this field trial and confirm the Sunglider’s enormous potential. Going forward, we’ll continue to challenge ourselves to achieve further performance enhancements, and realize long-duration flights and optical wireless communications. Building on the achievements from this field trial, we’ll accelerate our efforts towards commercializing HAPS,” the executive said.

SoftBank also noted that it will continue to conduct research and development for its HAPS business with the aim of providing emergency communications during disasters and solving other social issues.