Stratoship
Brisbane startup founded 2020 building solar-powered stratospheric HAPS airships; its SZ-155 prototype spent 8+ hours near 65,000 ft in 2025.
Stratoship is a Brisbane, Queensland start-up founded in 2020 that designs and builds remotely piloted, solar-powered stratospheric airships intended to serve as high-altitude platform stations (HAPS). Daniel Field founded the company and is managing director and engineering lead; Jennifer Williams is chief operating officer and Josh Quilty is chief remote pilot. Stratoship is a tenant of the ARM Hub Learning Factory in Brisbane and has taken part in ARM Hub's Defence Technology Accelerator and Female Founders Scale-up Manufacturing Program, as well as the UNSW D10x accelerator.
The platform is designed to fly at 50,000 to 80,000 ft (15 to 25 km), move and hold station for weeks to months, and carry customer equipment as a payload-agnostic remote site in the sky. Intended uses include extending radio and commercial communications networks, bushfire detection and support for emergency services, defence test and evaluation, and monitoring of construction, transport, crops, soil, mining operations, oil spills and natural disasters. The company states that one airship could extend communications by hundreds of kilometres and cover an area that would otherwise need more than 100 ground stations.
Development has moved in stages. In 2020 Stratoship was selected for RMIT University's Firefly Pathfinder Project. In 2021 its self-designed high-altitude balloon, The Pebble, reached the stratosphere, and in 2022 it launched its first functional stratospheric airship prototype in October. On 5 May 2025 the SZ-155 prototype, built for the HAPS Challenge, launched from Corfield in central west Queensland, about 85 km north of Winton, climbed to about 65,000 ft and stayed more than 8 hours in the stratosphere during a flight of 11 hours 12 minutes. It carried an ignition-detection sensor for identifying wildfires. The company describes the flight as the first by a sovereign Australian-designed and built HAPS to reach the stratosphere.
Alongside the airship, Stratoship sells hosted payload development, high-altitude balloon flights, demonstration flights and payload rideshare on its R&D test flights. Current engineering work focuses on keeping envelopes gas-tight during manufacture, since helium leakage limits time aloft, and on design assurance toward aviation certification. ARM Hub, through the Australian Manufacturing Capability Network, has helped the company apply to the Australian Government's Industry Growth Program for support to automate production; the outcome has not been published. No funding round, headcount or street address is disclosed.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Stratoship HAPS airship
Remotely piloted solar-powered stratospheric airship acting as a payload-agnostic high-altitude platform.
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Contact Stratoship
WEBSITE
https://stratoship.auHEADQUARTERS
Australia
Company Facts
Founded
2020
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Oceania
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
