The Machine: The Stratobus

It’s not just cars that are going driverless.

The huge airship Stratobus may take to the sky in 2019 – and, if French defence and aerospace firm Thales has its way, it will be completely autonomous. 

The company launched its ambitious €17 million (£14.4 million) research and development project in April last year, aiming to build a craft that’ll be half-drone, half-satellite. It will hover at an altitude of around 20km in the lower layer of the stratosphere and will carry out a wide range of missions, including observation, security, telecoms, broadcasting and navigation. Thanks to solar panels, the craft will be able to operate continuously for five years. 

Key facts:

• The Stratobus will be 100m long and 20m to 30m in diameter.
• The power generation will be provided by solar panels on the top of the airship. To optimise the amount of sunshine it captures throughout the year, the envelope will rotate using a mobility system located at the interface between the gondola and the airship.
• The Stratobus will be built around a flexible hull filled with helium in super pressure. The craft’s envelope, or skin, will be reinforced locally to support the motors and gondola.
• The platform will be kept in a stationary position using four electrical main engines with propellers designed for stratospheric conditions. 
• For night-time operations, Thales has developed an energy storage concept based on a regenerative fuel-cell system using hydrogen and oxygen gases combined in fuel cells. An electrolyser will be used in daytime to restore H₂/O₂ gas reserves.