Bye Aerospace and SolAero Technologies Corp. have announced an engineering, development and production partnership, that will result in SolAero integrating its solar cell technology into Bye Aerospace’s solar-electric StratoAirNet UAS.

Built to support government and commercial security requirements, the StratoAirNet family of systems is being developed with the intent to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) support for a variety of entities. The initial StratoAirNet 15 proof-of-concept prototype is almost complete, as it is undergoing final assembly.

“We are very excited about our partnership with Bye Aerospace and the future opportunities of the solar-powered StratoAirNet family of UAVs,” says SolAero Technologies CEO Brad Clevenger through a Bye Aerospace press release.

“The combination of our heritage high-efficiency solar cell technology and integration expertise with the wide range of capabilities of the StratoAirNet UAV family will help to usher in a new era of middle and high altitude commercial and defense applications.”

SolAero engineers recently finished the preliminary design review of the solar cell technology. With preliminary tests out of the way (those took place on a smaller scale test wing), whole-wing solar cell tests on StratoAirNet’s prototype will now be conducted, after measurements and fit checks are finished.

“SolAero is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced space solar power solutions,” says Bye Aerospace CEO George Bye. “The efficiencies of their solar cells will make the benefits of StratoAirNet even more compelling, allowing the airplane to fly at higher altitudes with almost unlimited flight endurance.”

According to Bye Aerospace, some of the commercial missions that the StratoAirNet UAS could be used for include communications relay, mapping and damage assessment.

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