High-Altitude System Offers Long-Term Earth Monitoring
Swift Engineering has earned a NASA Phase II award for a capability demonstration of the company’s Swift Ultra Long Endurance (SULE) high-altitude platform systems (HAPS). Swift Engineering has pioneered (HAPS) technology which can cost effectively monitor the surface of the Earth from high altitudes and for long continuous periods of time (see figure). The firm also produces a variety of unmanned aviation systems of interest to branches of the military for use in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones.
Hamed Khalkhali, President of Swift Engineering (San Clemente, CA), acknowledged the importance of NASA’s award: “The resources and support of the NASA SBIR program are vital to driving technology innovations that are critical in addressing multiple challenges and opportunities.” He noted that the NASA-sponsored SBIR platform encourages higher performance at lower costs: “We are proud to have been involved in this program on multiple occasions in pursuit of delivering high-performance, cost-effective solutions.”
NASA seeks reliable, long-term observational capability from the stratosphere for emergency management and to study environmental conditions (such as temperature rises) and has evaluated the possible use of HAPS platforms such as balloons and drones. Swift is exploring the design and development of SULE unmanned aerial systems (UASs) capable of 30-day endurance for both defense and industrial applications and has already reached an altitude of 55.904 feet mean sea level (MSL) during a 24-hour test flight. Swift has earned SBIR awards for a wide range of technologies, including a wireless water monitoring system, an Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled buoy-based water sensor system, and an expendable, inexpensive, long-endurance drone for military applications.
