American Made Swift High-Altitude-Long-Endurance UAS Completes Landmark First Flight

Receiving Both NASA’s Airworthiness Certification and the FAA’s Certificate of Authorization

In partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center, Swift Engineering’s high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial system, completed its maiden flight. The only US-made platform in its class, Swift’s flight team, performed a full-system check, validating the vehicle’s configuration for high-altitude continuous surveillance missions.

Through the collaboration with NASA, the successful flight trials took place at New Mexico’s Spaceport America. Designed to operate unmanned at 70,000 feet, The Swift HALE UAS offers 24-hour persistent and stable upper atmosphere operations for commercial and military surveillance, monitoring, communications, and security applications. An affordable alternative to satellites, the 72-foot solar-powered air vehicle weighs less than 180 pounds and can safely carry up to 15-pound payloads for missions.

The Swift HALE UAS was awarded two technology patents and received airworthiness certifications from NASA and the FAA‘s Certificate of Authorization (COA), enabling the unmanned aircraft to fly in commercial airspace.