Bye Aerospace Provides Stratospheric Persistence

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

George Bye, founder and head of Bye Aerospace, introduced the Silent Falcon unmanned aerial vehicle earlier this year at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) meeting.  He has two other relatively low-cost but highly capable offerings which could stretch the limits of unmanned aerial system (UAS) capabilities. The first, the Starlight program, involves lifting a variable geometry, solar-powered airplane to great heights with a balloon, hovering with it for up to four months, and releasing it when needed to allow refurbishing, refitting and relaunching. This two-stage system provides the same kind of surveillance offered by a satellite, but at a much lower cost.  The balloon is a static device, used only to provide the altitude necessary, and the aircraft needs to provide power sufficient to allow station keeping and run its sensor systems for the period it is at altitude.  When launched, the nose and tail-mounted electric motors power the airplane on its way.  It can slide its …