Although many eyes are on space as orbit becomes a thriving business ecosystem, Radical It's about keeping things a little closer to the ground, but not too close. Its solar-powered high-altitude planes aim to succeed where facebook's infamous Aquila failed by refining the technology and covering more markets.
It's hard to believe that facebook's ambitious plan to use solar-powered aircraft to provide Internet access in remote locations began a decade ago. But although those dreams were dashed when the project failed, the concept remained intact.
Ultralight aircraft in the stratosphere can, in theory, stay aloft almost indefinitely by powering their propellers through solar panels. Load it up with sensors, telecommunications equipment, or anything else and you've got a mobile, versatile asset that isn't hampered by orbital mechanics or chaotic weather patterns.
Radical CEO James Thomas suggested the technology simply wasn't ready until now.
“There has been interest in these high-end aircraft for a long time,” he told TechCrunch in an interview. “It's not a new idea, but in recent years many of the supporting technologies have really matured: batteries, solar power and even advanced computing. Look where we are now with battery technology: we're almost double that (of Aquila). “That puts us in a really strong position.”
The Seattle-based startup has raised a $4.5 million seed round to move from a small-scale demonstration aircraft, which recently flew successfully for 24 hours straight, to a full-scale one. This full-size craft would have a wingspan of about 100 feet, but would weigh “as much as a person,” which I took to mean between 100 and 200 pounds.
Radical founders own the subscale demonstrator aircraft.
Taking full-scale aircraft into the stratosphere is Radical's main goal, but that hasn't stopped them from exploring potential use cases.
“We think of what we're developing as a platform for persistent airborne infrastructure,” he said, but for use cases where an orbital asset is not practical. For example, orbital images of an area at risk of wildfires could arrive once every hour, which is too slow for a rapid response. But a high-altitude aircraft could provide 24/7 live monitoring for weeks at a time, or even change its location to track new threats.
In the case of telecommunications, although Starlink is rapidly emerging as the preferred solution for connectivity in remote areas, it has important limits, such as the need for precision ground infrastructure. There are many cases where a flying 5G station is a better option (although backhaul still needs to be resolved).
Radical was one of my picks from Y Combinator's early 2023 batch, and I wrote at the time:
I always thought the idea was compelling, but I had yet to find its business model. Connectivity anywhere can be a huge new differentiator for mobile networks, and I bet satellites will be useful but expensive and congested. Why not a giant glider? It's equally strange, but I appreciate the ambition.
Apparently he was right!
A nice advantage of working in the stratosphere, Thomas noted, is that the regulatory burden is significantly reduced. Above closely monitored urban and commercial airspace, it is much simpler to operate and faster to obtain approvals.
Radical is not the only company investigating this; the AALTO project at Airbus aims to fill a similar gap in telecommunications coverage, and Skydweller's much larger platform (just 600 kilograms of batteries) looks to take on a surveillance and intelligence role with a partnership with Palantir.
Thomas said their advantage comes from a close relationship with the companies they work with, who “really want to participate in the system.” So it's not a one-size-fits-all platform, but it's not purely custom either – it depends on the customer (although you called them customers, they're still not the paying type – the business is before revenue).
For now, the goal is to take off in the next 12 months, proving that the full-size craft can fly and putting them in a position to, presumably, start accepting money.
The seed round was led by Scout Ventures, with additional funding from investors including Inflection Mercury Fund and Y Combinator.
