ARIA backs 18 UK teams with £70M to build aircraft that act like satellites
What's the deal? The UK's Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is investing £70 million in 18 UK teams building aircraft that function like satellites but stay within Earth's atmosphere. Each team must keep a craft in a fixed position 15 to 20 kilometres above the UK for a week, powering a 300-watt communications payload. No one has done it yet.
What's the endgame? Satellites must survive rocket launches, radiation, and stay in orbit indefinitely. ARIA believes there may be a cheaper route: an aircraft that lingers in the stratosphere. Its Enduring Atmospheric Platforms programme runs for three and a half years and tests 18 engineering approaches at once.
Why now? Existing high-altitude platforms, sometimes called "flying satellites," last only hours or days before batteries run out, weather damages them, or they drift away. Programme director Rico Chandra split the funding into three categories: enabling technologies such as power beaming and lightweight solar materials; aircraft integration and testing; and the communications systems needed for commercial fleets.
How are teams approaching it? Leeds-based startup MenapiaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → proposes rotating a fleet rather than relying on battery life. "The vehicles don't have very long endurance whilst up there, but that problem can be overcome by means of this fleet-level rotation system," said founder John Mooney. VFP AerospaceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → plans to mass-produce six-axis drones, each built by founder Andy Cheadle for about £50,000 and run at under £10 per hour.
What surprised ARIA? One team is attempting the task with a rotorcraft, a type that has never flown at such altitudes. "It was entirely unexpected that we received proposals for rotary wing vehicles," Chandra told Tech Funding News . "The teams are now building aircraft that have never been built before, and that is exactly something we were determined to fund."
Why the budget grew. The programme was estimated at £50 million as recently as December 2025; the current figure is £70 million. The £20 million rise stems from the rotorcraft proposal and the cost of flight testing. "It's not easy to work out how costly it will be to book the drone test ranges and obtain the necessary airspace," Chandra explained.
What could go wrong? No team has passed the one-week endurance test. ARIA points out the rotorcraft has never flown at such heights, and the core challenge — holding position for a week while powering a payload — has never been solved reliably.
The signal: ARIA is betting that atmospheric aircraft could undercut satellites for connectivity, especially in hard-to-reach areas. "In rural areas it is difficult to provide the high-bandwidth connectivity that businesses need," said Space SolarDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → co-CEO Martin Soltau, whose team uses ground-based radio-frequency beaming. If one approach works, it could seed a new type of telecommunications infrastructure.
Image credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video
