Ahead of the Bordeaux UAV Show taking place October 7–9, 2026, high-altitude platform developer x721 announced plans to exhibit its Heliblade stratospheric drone demonstrator.
The company also announced the establishment of a new French subsidiary, x721 France, based at Bordeaux Technowest-Mérignac, as part of an engineering development program targeting operational flights in the stratosphere by the end of 2028.
Heliblade Demonstrator and Aeromechanical Architecture
Classified as an experimental High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) and High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) platform, the Heliblade utilizes a structural architecture featuring two rotor blades stiffened by centrifugal force. On July 24, 2026, x721 completed the platform’s initial autonomous outdoor flight test—designated Mission M001—in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The flight achieved level flight segments at altitudes of 15 meters and 35 meters, validating the core concept for the French Ministry of the Armed Forces while capturing telemetry data to calibrate numerical flight models.
Designed as a dual-use system for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), earth observation, and tactical communications, Very High Altitude (VHA) aircraft operate in the upper atmosphere between conventional aeronautical ceilings and Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellite constellations.
Operations Expansion and Leadership
To oversee industrial scale-up and engineering execution, x721 appointed Céline Burger as CEO of x721 France. Burger holds an engineering degree from INSA Lyon and brings over two decades of industrial site management experience from roles at Saint-Gobain, Vicat, Consolis, and Pigeon.
“By combining experience and ingenuity, technology and practical application, x721 has every chance of bridging the gap between the upper atmosphere and very low Earth orbit—wherever and whenever there is a need to understand reality in real time in order to anticipate its consequences,” stated Jean-Jacques Dordain, Chairman of the Board of x721 and former Director General of the European Space Agency.
Development Timeline to Stratospheric Operations
Between October 2026 and September 2027, x721 France will complete its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to finalize the stratospheric Heliblade configuration, including wing structures, solar panels, battery management systems, and fail-safe flight control software. The team plans to conduct mid-altitude flight testing between 1,000 meters and 3,000 meters by late 2027 before commencing full stratospheric flight demonstrations in 2028.
