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Bye Aerospace (Denver, CO, US) announced on Aug. 20 the successful completion of the first flight of the solar electric technology demonstrator prototype for its StratoAirNet and Solesa families of medium-altitude aircraft systems. The piloted prototype first flight and subsequent flight tests took place at Northern Colorado Regional Airport, north of Loveland, CO, US.

The Solesa and StratoAirNet family of aircraft systems is intended to provide support for long-endurance commercial and government security requirements, including patrol, observation, utility, mapping, precision agriculture, search and rescue and surveillance missions. The Solesa aircraft system will be piloted, performing similar patrol and survey missions for shorter flight durations. It also provides an R&D test platform for new customer payloads. StratoAirNet is intended to be a longer-endurance UAV and will follow required steps to qualify this additional capability.
 
According to Bye Aerospace, StratoAirNet and Solesa offer advantages over traditional systems, including lower unit cost, lower heat and noise signatures, lower operating costs and enhanced utility. Bye Aerospace is collaborating with SolAero (Albuquerque, NM, US), integrating their advanced high-efficiency solar cell technologies on the advanced graphite composite wing.