[cashsterling]

This is very cool... I worked for a short-lived start-up in 2016 that was trying to do exactly this: solar-powered, electric high-altitude (60k feet) & long endurance drones for similar applications (connectivity, observation, and remote sensing). We were designing our-own carbon fiber air-frames and even bought (and mostly installed) a MTorres automated carbon fiber layup system.

I ran the material science group (I'm a ChemE) so the carbon fiber layup and manufacturing, solar panel materials and integration, battery system, avionics light-weighting and protection, etc. all fell under my domain. I'm not great in the carbon fiber department: we had a lot of help from a company who was our main investor.

As you know, the materials science challenges between flying a drone at 10k feet and below and flying HALE are extremely different... the day/night temperature oscillations on wing are huge, thermal management of the battery system (to heat it, keep it warm enough) is critically important, and so many more.

There are a lot of interesting problems to solve in this space. You've probably thought of most/all of them but I'd be happy to chat.

[cyrieln]

Thanks! Sounds like you have lots of relevant experience in this domain. Would love to chat. E-mail is in my bio.