HAPSMobile is a subsidiary of SoftBank planning to operate High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) networks, with AeroVironment as a minority owner. HAPSMobile is developing the Hawk30 solar-powered

unmanned aircraft An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

for stratospheric telecommunications. It has a strategic relationship with

Loon LLC Loon LLC was an Alphabet Inc. subsidiary working on providing Internet access to rural and remote areas. The company used high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere at an altitude of to to create an aerial wireless network with up to 1 Mbit/s ...

, a subsidiary of Google's parent

Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and sev ...

Hawk30

Development

On January 3, 2018, AeroVironment announced it would design and develop a solar-powered, high-altitude, unmanned aircraft and associated ground control stations for a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with Japanese telco SoftBank (95%) for $65 million. In November 2018, the

NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical rese ...

at Edwards AFB in California was selected to provide ground and range safety for the project up to 10,000 ft for $791,600. On April 25, 2019, the stratospheric Hawk30 was rolled out for the joint venture. Commercial operations are expected to begin in 2023, operating year-round at

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

s 30° north and south of the equator. AeroVironment's design development investment increased by $39 million to $129 million, and a later Hawk50 model would allow operations from 50° north and south of the equator, to cover Japan and North America. The same day, SoftBank invested $125 million in

Loon Loons (North American English) or divers (British / Irish English) are a group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus ''Gavia'', family Gaviidae and order Gavi ...

, a subsidiary of Google parent

Alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

, that has been developing high-altitude balloons for internet connectivity since 2011. It will make a similar investment in HAPSMobile, collaborating on common

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

s, communications payloads and can share network connectivity in flight. HAPSMobile could also use the Loon-developed fleet management system and software-defined network. In August 2019, the FAA allowed the HAWK30 to fly in the stratosphere above

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in FY2019, within the Pan-Pacific UAS Test Range Complex. On September 11, the prototype Hawk30 first flew at low altitude in restricted airspace at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. Stratospheric flight tests up to 65,000 ft are expected to start before March 31, 2020, from the Hawaiian island of

Lanai Lanai ( haw, Lānai, , , also ,) is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple pl ...

. Built in Simi Valley, California, the HAWK30 made its first flight and was tested at the

Spaceport America Spaceport America, formerly the Southwest Regional Spaceport, is an FAA-licensed spaceport located on of State Trust Land in the Jornada del Muerto desert basin north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and southeast of Truth or Consequences. With V ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

instead, as the local

Economic Development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

Department provided $500,000 in subsidies. On 21–22 September 2020, the HAPSMobile Hawk30 (rebranded as ''Sunglider'') flew 20 hours from Spaceport America, and reached an altitude of on its fifth demonstration flight. It tested the long-distance

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement *** LTE Advanced Pro * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq * ...

communications developed with Loon for standard LTE

smartphones A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which ...

and

wireless broadband Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the word "b ...

communications.

Design

The Hawk30 flying-wing is a development of the NASA Pathfinder and NASA Helios high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft built by AeroVironment for NASA. Resembling the 1999 Helios, the tailless aircraft is a span

flying wing A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...

with 10 electric-driven propellers. Orbiting at , it is solar-powered by day and battery-powered by night to stay aloft for up to six months initially. The aircraft's service life is planned to be two years and its time on station may be extended by 1–2 months with experience. The aircraft will be remotely piloted for the ascent and descent, and operate autonomously once cruising in the

stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air ...

. The HAWK30 cruises at 59 kn (110 km/h). The system would provide

4G LTE In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by us ...

and 5G direct to devices over a 200 km (125 mi) diameter area, and 40 aircraft could cover the entire Japanese archipelago. It should be interoperable with terrestrial cell towers to expand their coverage and as a proxy for the SoftBank-backed OneWeb satellite constellation, when it is not suited for providing links directly to devices.

References

External links

* * {{cite web , url= https://hapsalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/12/SpA_Flight_Communication_Tests_White_Paper_English_Final_2021.pdf , title= Bridging the Digital Divide with Aviation in the Stratosphere , publisher= HAPS Alliance , date= Sep 22, 2021 HAPSMobile Solar-powered aircraft Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States 2010s United States experimental aircraft Ten-engined tractor aircraft Flying wings Aircraft first flown in 2019

Hawk30

Development

Design

See also

References

External links