This flying solar-powered platform could deliver better internet from the air

As soon as August, a giant silver bullet will cut its way through the dry air of the southwestern US and cross the Pacific to reach the coast of Japan. Once there, the roughly 200-foot-long craft, built by the New Mexico–based company Sceye, will park some 18 kilometers above the ocean’s surface, in a wispy-thin layer known as the stratosphere. Then it will use a custom-built antenna to supplement Softbank’s 5G network, a test that will include beaming data straight to devices. Sceye is one of several firms building a class of airborne craft called HAPS, or high-altitude platform stations or systems. Such a platform can be a plane or a balloon or, yes, an oblong craft filled with helium and outfitted with solar panels. HAPS companies, including the Airbus subsidiary Aalto, envision them serving a variety of lofty purposes, such as delivering internet service to disaster sites and observing Earth’s surface.