Enduring Atmospheric Platforms

Meet the R&D Creators

Eighteen funded teams (Creators) are working on technologies to enable aircraft to operate reliably and cost-effectively in the stratosphere. These platforms will provide the physical backbone for next-generation advanced communications and a path to connectivity for underserved regions.

We’re funding ambitious teams across three technical areas:

• TA1 | Enabling Technologies: developing game-changing enabling technologies that make the development of a full system comparatively low risk.
• TA2 | Systems Integration + Testing: developing and testing the platforms to achieve the primary metric – continuous delivery of power to a payload while keeping station.
• TA3 | Deployment + Communications Architecture: working closely with the technical teams, regulators, the telecoms industry, and investors to design communications architectures and plan their deployment in a commercially lucrative way, translating the programme’s technical breakthroughs into real-world impact.