Zephyr High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS)

Persistent, high-resolution earth observation

Proven day and night

AALTO is an Airbus subsidiary, which designs and manufactures the world-record-breaking Zephyr High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS). Zephyr’s endurance allows it to fly continuously for months at a time. Flying above 60,000 feet, Zephyr operates in the stratosphere, above weather and conventional air traffic.

It remains the only fixed-wing HAPS to have demonstrated day and night endurance in the stratosphere. Together, with Airbus’ Strat-Observer service, Zephyr can enable very-high resolution imagery and near-real-time video from the stratosphere. Alternatively, equipped with a connectivity payload, Zephyr can serve as a tower in the sky; providing low-latency connectivity directly to the end user’s device, with an approximate coverage reach of up to 7,500 square kilometres.

Zephyr is a solar-electric aircraft, with secondary batteries that recharge during the day for night flight.

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Strat-Observer

Strat-Observer is a new generation Earth observation service specialising in the acquisition of very high resolution images and live video from the stratosphere. It is a flexible, cost-effective complement to traditional Earth observation, such as satellites and UAS. This new service provides a valuable service for a wide range of applications such as maritime surveillance, border monitoring, mapping, forest fires and emergency response in general.

The payload, developed by Airbus Defence and Space, is designed to fly on different types of HAPS (High Altitude Platform Station), such as AALTO's Zephyr.

Using a steerable high-resolution optical camera, the service can typically cover 2500 km² per day at 18cm resolution. The camera's footprint is 1 km², but its steerability allows it to reach any point in a 40 x 30 km area at any time.

Learn more about Strat-Observer