AALTO
About
About AALTO
Zephyr climbs above conventional air traffic and most weather, using solar energy during daylight and batteries through the night. Its lightweight airframe has demonstrated flights measured in weeks, allowing one aircraft to remain over a region far longer than a conventional drone while carrying communications or imaging payloads.
AALTO is developing the operating infrastructure, payload integration and regulatory model required to turn the aircraft into a service. Flight campaigns and AALTOPORT planning in Kenya support Earth-observation, connectivity and government missions, but recurring commercial operation remains a future service ambition rather than an already established network.
Products
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- Amprius Technologies
Inbound - Power Systems - Amprius silicon-anode cells powered the AALTO Zephyr flight that ended in April 2025 after 67 days
Source
Team
- Samer Halawi - Chief Executive Officer - Leads AALTO as it commercializes Zephyr high-altitude platform stations for connectivity and Earth observation.
- Hughes Boulnois - Chief Executive Officer
- Taz Esmail - Chief Financial and Strategy Officer
- Pierre-Antoine Aubourg - Chief Operations Officer
- Giuseppe Ferlazzo - Chief Programme and Delivery Officer
- Adam Rogowski - General Counsel
- Theo Davies-Lewis - Chief Corporate and Public Affairs Officer - As chief corporate and public affairs officer, he leads AALTO's corporate communications, public affairs and sustainability engagement around Zephyr operations and market…
Timeline
Events
- 2026-03-02 - Partnership - AALTO and Telkomsel sign Indonesia Stratospace memorandum
The memorandum was signed at Mobile World Congress Barcelona. The parties described initial Zephyr operations from 2027 as a target, not a completed deployment. The work builds on AALTO's existing cooperation with Indonesian infrastructure operator Mitratel.
Source - 2025-04-28 - Partnership - AALTO Zephyr Achieves World-Record 67-Day Flight Powered by Amprius Ultra-High-Energy Batteries
Amprius has been a key supplier of high-performance batteries to AALTO for several years, including for a 2022 Zephyr flight that lasted 64 days. The new 67-day flight builds on that milestone, further proving the reliability of Amprius’ technology and the Zephyr system’s ability to push the limits of aviation endurance.
Source - 2025-04-28 - Demonstration - AALTO completes 67-day continuous Zephyr stratospheric flight
The flight launched from AALTOPORT Kenya on 20 February 2025 and concluded on 28 April. Zephyr crossed the Intertropical Convergence Zone twice and navigated seven flight-information regions. The aircraft conducted connectivity-payload testing before transiting to Australian airspace.
Source - 2025-03-03 - Capability - AALTO connects a ground 4G device through Zephyr in Kenya
The campaign was conducted for Space Compass with NTT DOCOMO as partner. Testing included a telephone call routed from Kenya through Zephyr to the United Kingdom. AALTO measured throughput, signal quality and other payload-performance characteristics.
Source - 2025-02-03 - Deployment - AALTO completes first operational Zephyr flight from Kenya base
The aircraft flew above 60,000 feet for more than 13 days. Zephyr carried a Farnborough-developed direct-to-device 4G/5G connectivity payload. The flight followed permissions secured with the Kenya Space Agency and Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.
Source - 2024-10-30 - Executive Hire - AALTO appoints Hughes Boulnois chief executive
Boulnois had most recently served as Airbus vice president for Zephyr. He previously led customer programme management for A400M and served as general manager for SpaceDataHighway. AALTO paired the appointment with a strategy focused on government demand, customer delivery and operational execution.
Source - 2024-07-25 - Regulatory - AALTO secures UK CAA Design Organisation Approval
The approval was the first UK Design Organisation Approval issued to a HAPS company. The CAA reviewed AALTO's procedures, facilities and design-team competence. AALTO continued type-certification work for Zephyr; the approval was not itself aircraft type certification.
Source - 2024-06-03 - Market Signal - AALTO announces conditional investment of up to $100 million
The consortium also included Mizuho Bank and the Development Bank of Japan. The investment was intended to support Zephyr industrialisation and HAPS commercialisation in Japan and Asia. Airbus Defence and Space was to remain AALTO's majority shareholder; the release did not establish a completed $100 million cash close.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- NTT DOCOMO
Technology Partner - AALTO partnered with NTT DOCOMO on Zephyr stratospheric connectivity testing.
- Airbus
Parent And Programme Origin - Airbus transferred the Zephyr programme into AALTO HAPS, remaining an owner and strategic partner of the operating company.
Context
Shared workflows
- Hemeria
workflow adjacency - Haps Stratospheric Drone Builder · Persistent Stratospheric Operations
- Elbit Systems Ltd.
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- AEVEX
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Tornyol
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Voltair
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Brumby
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Buoyant Aero
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Kalam Labs
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Avion
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Paladin
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Skyways
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- HyLight
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Zeitview
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Velontra
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Easy Aerial
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- DroneUp
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- PABLO AIR
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Azur Drones
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Fotokite
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Robotican
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- SpearUAV
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- DroneMatrix
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Nordic Unmanned
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Dronehub
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Aerodyne Group
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Dedrone
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Department 13
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Drone Harmony
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Aloft Technologies
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Harris Aerial
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
Context tags
- Commercial deployment - Commercial Stage - Commercial deployment with telecom and defence customers
- Autonomous drone systems participation - Workflow - Autonomous drone company operating at stratospheric altitude
- HAPS stratospheric drone builder - Workflow - AALTO builds the Zephyr high-altitude pseudo-satellite unmanned aircraft platform.
- Persistent stratospheric operations - Workflow - Persistent stratospheric operations for connectivity and surveillance
- Critical infrastructure robotics - Workflow - Critical infrastructure and persistent coverage robotics