Japan’s SoftBank Corp introduced that its large-scale Excessive Altitude Platform Station (HAPS), named Sunglider, has efficiently achieved stratospheric flight. The solar-powered uncrewed plane system (UAS) designed for HAPS stratospheric telecommunications was utilised in a subject trial carried out by AeroVironment and the US Division of Protection (DoD) in New Mexico, USA, in early August 2024. In response to SoftBank, Sunglider is bigger than different publicly introduced HAPS UAS, boasting a wingspan of 78 meters and the potential to hold payloads weighing as much as 75 kg.
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Enhanced Options and Capabilities of Sunglider
The corporate mentioned this large-scale UAS is engineered to ship secure, high-speed, and sturdy cell connectivity. The plane used within the stratospheric subject trial was an improved model that included structural and practical enhancements to allow higher efficiency than its predecessor, SoftBank defined.
Junichi Miyakawa, President and CEO of SoftBank Corp, mentioned, “SoftBank started its HAPS program in 2017 as a world pioneer and has since led the {industry} in analysis and improvement, subject trials, standardisation, and different actions to understand HAPS-based providers. For our plane platform, we have been working with our accomplice AeroVironment to develop Sunglider, an industry-leading large-scale HAPS plane. The HAPS service we’re aiming to offer will supply high-speed, high-capacity, high-quality, and secure communications, which is barely potential with a large-scale plane.”
“Going ahead, we’ll proceed to problem ourselves to attain additional efficiency enhancements and realise long-duration flights and optical wi-fi communications. Constructing on the achievements from this subject trial, we’ll speed up our efforts in the direction of commercialising HAPS.”
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Affect on International Connectivity
SoftBank plans to make use of insights from the trial to advance its HAPS initiatives, specializing in bridging the digital divide, facilitating emergency communications, and addressing broader societal challenges.
