An Oklahoma City-based company says it’s on the cusp of developing a solar-powered drone that will effectively never have to land. “We are developing what we believe is the world’s first operationally viable perpetual flight platform,” said Barry Matsumori, COO of Skydweller Aero. The airliner-sized platform, with a wingspan greater than that of a 747, flew six times in 2024 from Stennis International Airport in Mississippi. Four of the flights were fully autonomous. The longest was 22.5 hours and the drone got as high as 33,000 feet.
The company says it’s getting ready to commercialize the drones and envisions 30- to 90-day missions looking for drug smugglers and pirates and doing military surveillance. The test aircraft has a payload of 800 pounds and is made from carbon fiber. Its development was inspired by the solar-powered circumnavigation of Solar Impulse in 2016.
