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September 7th, 2022
The final design of New Zealand’s first stratospheric aircraft has been finalised and construction is well underway, Christchurch-based Kea Aerospace has confirmed. The solar-powered “Kea Atmos Mk 1” will be used for high altitude flight testing. It has a wingspan of 12.5 metres and weighs under 40 kilograms. Designed to fly at 65,000 feet (20 […]
June 28th, 2022
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND – June 28th, 2022 – Kea Aerospace, a New Zealand-based solar-powered stratospheric aircraft developer, today announced that it has joined the HAPS Alliance, a non-profit association dedicated to building a high altitude platform stations (HAPS) ecosystem that brings digital connectivity to everyone, everywhere. As the first New Zealand member of the HAPS […]
May 1st, 2022
Over the years Canterbury has been home to many aviators. From Richard Pearse and Henry Wigram to Glenn Martin, Cantabrians have a history of pushing the boundaries in aviation and leading the way for the rest of the world. Here’s a timeline of some of the aviation milestones in Canterbury’s history that have paved the […]
February 16th, 2022
On a 36-hour flight on February 15th, Kea Aerospace flew the “X10” unmanned aircraft from the morning through the day and an entire night, then fully recharged the batteries using solar energy the next day. This aircraft demonstrates Kea Aerospace’s technology for long endurance perpetual flight. To our knowledge, it’s the first time this has […]
December 21st, 2021
Media Release: Kea Aerospace Achieves Longest Endurance UAV Flight In New Zealand On Sunday 19th December Kea Aerospace has recorded the longest known flight for an unmanned aircraft in New Zealand, in an electric-powered flight above Kaitōrete, near Christchurch. The battery and solar-powered vehicle flew non-stop for 14 hours and 3 minutes, beating the previous […]
October 10th, 2021
Kea Aerospace is building a solar-powered, unmanned aircraft that can fly in the stratosphere continuously for months at a time. The zero-emission aircraft, called the Kea Atmos, will carry a suite of imagery equipment that will be game-changing for many industries, vastly improving intelligence for applications such as smart cities, precision agriculture, disaster management and […]
June 11th, 2021
By Mark Rocket November last year, we publicly launched our company, along with the stratospheric project we’re working on and our involvement with New Zealand’s Airspace Integration Trials. Since then, a few people have asked how we got started, so here’s the story of Kea Aerospace’s origins. In 2007, I started commercial operations of Rocket […]
April 13th, 2021
New Zealand-DLR Joint Research Programme In 2018 MBIE and DLR signed a Letter of Intent to enable joint research collaboration. MBIE invited proposals for feasibility studies under “Catalyst: Strategic for feasibility studies with the German Aerospace Center (DLR)” in the areas of propulsion, space communications and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technologies. MBIE has announced the […]
November 19th, 2020
Some media stories after Kea Aerospace’s company launch: Newshub / TV3: Kea Aerospace solar-power aircraft a ‘game changer’ for aerial imaging Stuff: NZ company aims to become ‘Uber of aerial intelligence’ with its solar-powered aircraft NZ Herald: Unmanned aircraft being developed in Christchurch BusinessDesk: Rocket Lab co-founder seeks $3m for stratospheric aircraft RNZ: Christchurch company’s […]
November 18th, 2020
At 11am today, Kea Aerospace announced the stratospheric aircraft development program for the ‘Kea Atmos’ and acceptance into the Airspace Integration Trials run by MBIE. A special thank you to Hon. Minister Megan Woods and Lianne Dalziel, Mayor of Christchurch for their talks and to Spark for hosting the event at their superb Spark Square […]
