State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bengaluru-based technology start-up NewSpace Research and Technologies (NRT), after completing recent trials of the sub-scale prototype version of the proposed high-altitude pseudo satellite (HAPS) with an 8-meter wingspan, plan to develop larger sub-scale prototypes with 16-meter wingspan and 24-meter wingspan HAPS prior to manufacturing HAPS with 59-meter wingspan.
We have been informed that it will take four years to fly the full-scale solar-powered prototype with a three-month endurance at 60,000 feet, while it wants to construct two more sub-scale prototype versions with a 16-meter and 24-meter wingspan within the following 18 months.
HAPS will be utilised to provide troops with live video feeds and photos for intelligence, surveillance, and communication purposes. According to idrw.org, 3 HAPS would be able to give 5G service to a region as large as Delhi 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the event of an emergency or if the country is at war and its telecommunications infrastructure is destroyed.