Opinion: The future of global connectivity may be hovering high above California
The next chapter in how we stay connected may not come from deep space It might just float above our heads in the still bright air of the stratosphere While satellite hardware has taken us far it s starting to show strain With global internet usage expected to reach nearly exabytes per month next year current systems are under pressure Congestion lag and cost obstacles are all part of the challenge Thousands of satellites are already circling the globe and tens of thousands more are on the way That s a lot of traffic in a place with very limited lanes So what s the alternative Imagine solar-powered aircraft that can quietly stay aloft for weeks serving as airborne relays for evidence video and communications These are known as high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles HALE for short and they re designed to deliver real-time connectivity especially in areas where ground-based systems don t reach and satellites fall short At Swift Engineering a Hiro Matsushita Company in San Clemente we re emerging HALE UAVs that fly above commercial air traffic but well below satellites These platforms can be rapidly launched and redirected depending on need whether that s improving broadband access in rural valleys tracking wildfires in real-time or giving urgency crews uninterrupted lines of communication when the grid goes down Consider how this could affect the fire season across the West When a wildfire breaks out in the mountains of San Diego County or the forests of Northern California getting real-time aerial statistics can mean the difference between holding a line or losing thousands of acres Traditional satellite systems may take hours to send usable imagery Ground-based towers may not have line-of-sight HALE UAVs on the other hand can circle above the smoke for days capturing thermal imagery relaying live video and helping crews adjust on the fly As another example take internet access in rural California Plenty of agricultural regions in the Central Valley still lack reliable broadband Deploying fiber isn t consistently feasible and satellite input can be expensive and slow A solar UAV stationed feet above the farmland can fill that gap at a fraction of the infrastructure cost These platforms also have value during large residents events from monitoring traffic patterns to providing connectivity in remote festival locations They re quiet persistent and don t need a runway Once launched they can stay up for days and be brought down for maintenance refueling or solution updates California has long been the birthplace of aerospace innovation From the Mercury missions to reusable spaceflight breakthroughs here have changed the way we live communicate and explore Stratospheric flight might be the next big step and once again California companies are helping to shape that future HALE UAVs will not necessarily replace satellites but they offer something different flexibility responsiveness and long dwell times right where we need them They bridge the middle ground between the sky and space In a time when staying connected isn t optional that kind of in-between cure might be exactly what we ve been missing Hamed Khalkhali is president of Swift Engineering based in San Clemente With decades of experience in aerospace design and autonomous systems he leads the company s advancement of solar-powered HALE UAVs built for stratospheric flight
